2006/4/23, Tony Bruguier tony.bruguier@gmail.com:
I'm new to this list, so please forgive me if I mess up. There's been some talk about advertisement on wikipedia or not. Why not make it optional, so that each user decides if he/she wants to see the advertisement? That way, users can "support" wikipedia or not. I don't think that'd be a sell out.
I personally would not object to advertisement, as long as it's not intrusive (popups, flashing, pushing a significant portion of the article away from first page, etc.) and editorial independence is safeguarded. However, I do know that there also exist Wikipedia editors who do fiercely oppose it, and we might simply lose some of them.
Having said that, I see some practical difficulty with your proposal. Would anonymous visitors and people who have not changed their settings see the advertisements? If yes (opt-out system), then I fear that the abovementioned people will still have the same strong objections. If no (opt-in system), then I doubt whether the amount of money generated by such advertising would be worth the trouble taken.
As said before, I personally think some simple advertisement would be a good way to raise some money, but I also know there is quite some resistance in the community about it. Or rather, there was such resistance a few years ago. Of course attitudes may have changed since then.
-- Andre Engels, andreengels@gmail.com ICQ: 6260644 -- Skype: a_engels