On Dec 27, 2003, at 12:56 PM, GreenMountain wrote:
Consumer Reports magazine does not include ads, as they do not want to be in any way tainted by sponsers. I think we should follow suit and prevent future problems.
This won't be a problem. Magazines have advertising departments which contract with businesses for advertising and that can affect impartiality. Wikimedia would have no control over the ads on the site since they are chosen automatically by a Google algorithm based on the page itself. More importantly the advertisers would have no control over the Wikipedia, since they won't even know where their ads show up.
Also, I am sure that it would cause many valuable contributers to leave wikipedia for other encyclopedias, which might mean the death of wikipedia if enough people branch off.
This, I think, is the only real issue. there are some technical issues, including where on the page to place them, but this is the only "real" problem I'm aware of.
Peter
--- There's no place I can be Since I found Serenity You can't take the sky from me -- Ballad for Serenity, Firefly