[Foundation-l] Optional advertisement on wikipedia

[Arbeo M]

On 4/23/06, Tony Bruguier <tony.bruguier at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> 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.
>
> Tony
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bruguiea
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l


Thanks for your suggestion. I for one would not feel fundamentally disturbed
by seeing ads imcluded like at wikia.com, especially not when they can help
to secure the future of Wikimedia's projects. However, one major concern
persists no matter if we make ads optional or mandatory: How can it be
assured advertisers don't influence Wikipedia's content? IMHO, once we start
selling ads customers will invariably affect our content to some degree. For
the most part probably not in a spectacular way but rather in a very subtle
manner. For example articles that deal with companies that regularly
advertise on Wikipedia will most likely tend to contain slightly less
critisism than they normally would, in order not to lose those customers.
They will possibly have a tendency to sound a little bit more well-meaning
than articles on competing companies that don't buy ads. On top of that,
Wikipedia editors will spend more time and effort on writing content dealing
with companies that advertise on Wikipedia. Not because of any gross
corruption, simply because they will be more aware of them, seeing their
names while spending time at Wikipedia. An increased number of commercial
links in articles might be another possible side-effect of allowing ads.

Once again, this is not to say that I'm fundamentally opposing all forms of
advertising under all circumstances. It is vital for our project to have a
solid financial basis and we might one day reach a point where donations
will no longer be sufficient. However, the community should be aware of the
fact that generating income by means of selling ads will almost invariably
reduce our independence to some degree.

Arbeo