[Foundation-l] Re: Our exponentially increasing costs

[Neil Harris]

Anthony DiPierro wrote:

>On 10/23/05, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>--- Dori <slowpoke at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Yes, but when you enter into a legal contract, it's not just you that
>>>we have to worry about, it's the other party as well. I really don't
>>>think we'll be getting much revenue from this deal to justify the
>>>risk, and in general I don't think in the *long term* relying on
>>>advertising will keep Wikipedia afloat.
>>>      
>>>
>>Er. Not that we'd ever do this unless *absolutely* necessary to keep us
>>online,
>>but do you have *any* idea how much advertising revenue would be brought
>>in by
>>an Internet top 50 website? At least a couple hundred thousand dollars a
>>month
>>for something relatively unobtrusive like Google Ads.
>>    
>>
>
>
>It boggles my mind that this isn't being done. Seems to me like a totally
>irrational fear that Wikimedia would somehow start catering to the
>advertisers. It's almost as though Wikipedians are afraid of money or
>something.
>  
>

Hmm. 2500 hits/sec * 86400 secs/day * $1 CPM = $216,000 / _day_, or 
$78,000,000+/year. Have you considered that the Wikimedia foundation 
board might be aware of this, and that its decision not to put up 
advertising might be a principled decision, rather than motivated by 
"fear of money"?

-- Neil