The user hfastedge has on his page an ad for some kind of service he's offering. I deleted it, with an explanation that even the people providing the server don't get to run ads on the Wikipedia. In response, I found the following on my talk page:
"OK. feel free to comment on my talk page, or on the ideas for wikipedia i have on my user page. But please don't change my advertisment again. Just because wikipedia is open source does not mean that money shouldnt be made off it. To think so demonstrates a terribly FLAWED chain of reasoning.
"Your changing of that section is understandable, but doing it again will send me off. If you cannot comprehend that at SOME POINT money has to be made, then I suggest you discontinue talk with me on this matter, or you approach me with the intent of curiosity, and an open mind. Try the service out if you are more curious, as I said, you'll get a free customized feature of your request, and you will be able to request more customized features from the pool of users. User:hfastedge"
He's wrong, imho, but I'd like some comments, so it doesn't look like a private argument between the two of us. Conversely, if I've misunderstood and ads on user pages are cool, I want to know that.
Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
If you cannot comprehend that at SOME POINT money has to be made,
I think that the only person who could validly claim that "at SOME POINT money has to be made" is me -- since I'm paying all the actual cash bills around here. But I don't say that, and in fact I say the exact opposite -- no money is really NEEDED for the immediate future.
Perhaps he's planning to give the money for my kid's college education fund? *grin*
So, that argument is pretty much a non-starter. On the other hand, user pages have been, to a degree at least, been generally considered the province of the user. I'm inclined to say that the content of those pages are subject to "raw wiki rules" which means, hey, delete it and put it back until someone gives up. But I'm not sure if that's the most useful attitude.
The only concern I have about banning advertisements in user pages is that it commits us to enforcing content-based restrictions on those pages, which are generally NOT incluced in our NPOV mission.
--Jimbo
At 12:56 PM 9/25/02 -0700, Jimbo wrote:
The only concern I have about banning advertisements in user pages is that it commits us to enforcing content-based restrictions on those pages, which are generally NOT incluced in our NPOV mission.
We do generally have a rule that Wikipedia isn't the place to stash your home page, but that's different.
So, would it be reasonably cool for me to include a note that while I edit the Wiki stuff for free, I'm available for professional editing services of other material?
Vicki
Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
At 12:56 PM 9/25/02 -0700, Jimbo wrote:
The only concern I have about banning advertisements in user pages is that it commits us to enforcing content-based restrictions on those pages, which are generally NOT incluced in our NPOV mission.
We do generally have a rule that Wikipedia isn't the place to stash your home page, but that's different.
So, would it be reasonably cool for me to include a note that while I edit the Wiki stuff for free, I'm available for professional editing services of other material?
Yes, why not? And you would probably be more successful at it than our friend "hfastedge" because people have already seen your work, and have an idea of the quality of work that they would be getting. Our new friend has been with us less than a week, and the material on his user page gives the impression of a freshman psychology student who is very certain about how to fix people's problems
By raising this issue you've sent several of us to view his user page who otherwise would have ignored him completely. That gives him a marketing benefit that he could not generate himself. In reading his page I became completely turned off by his using "u" for "you", and the more I read the less I understood. I think his marketing strategy is faulty.
Ec
At 05:22 PM 9/25/02 -0400, you wrote:
At 12:56 PM 9/25/02 -0700, Jimbo wrote:
The only concern I have about banning advertisements in user pages is that it commits us to enforcing content-based restrictions on those pages, which are generally NOT incluced in our NPOV mission.
We do generally have a rule that Wikipedia isn't the place to stash your home page, but that's different.
So, would it be reasonably cool for me to include a note that while I edit the Wiki stuff for free, I'm available for professional editing services of other material?
Vicki
Sounds good.
Fred
--- Vicki Rosenzweig vr@redbird.org wrote:
We do generally have a rule that Wikipedia isn't the place to stash your home page, but that's different.
So, would it be reasonably cool for me to include a note that while I edit the Wiki stuff for free, I'm available for professional editing services of other material?
Sure, I think so.
Stephen
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--- Vicki Rosenzweig vr@redbird.org wrote:
He's wrong, imho, but I'd like some comments, so it doesn't look like a private argument between the two of us. Conversely, if I've misunderstood and ads on user pages are cool, I want to know that.
Well... I'm undecided. It's clearly a service offered by a single Wikipedian, rather than an official Wikipedia money-making scheme. It's just a text ad, not a big banner. And it is related to Wikipedia. I know Eloquence has a bit on his user page to Paypal him some money and he'll work on more Wikipedia articles.
On the other hand, I'm concerned that allowing such personal mini-ads will get out of control. Wikipedia has a fairly high Google PageRank (my user page comes up #3 or 4 in a search for "stephen gilbert"), and people might think a link from Wikipedia would be a good way to boost the visibility of their site.
For now, though, I can't say I'm strongly opposed to mentioning his service. Now his ideas for the complete restructuring of Wikipedia, on the other hand... :)
Stephen G.
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