[Foundation-l] Advertisement

[Marco Chiesa]

Jeroenvrp wrote:

>It also creates a precedent to the future. The road to daily advertisement has 
>been opened by a weak Foundation. Yes we need the money, but there are other 
>ways. Rather no money than sell the basis principles of Wikipedia/-media to 
>whoever has the money.
>
>  
>
I agree that the main point here is that for the first time (well, as 
far as I can tell), a company logo which is not related to the WMF has 
appeared on all pages. I'm personally grateful to Virgin Unite for the 
donation, in the same way as I'm grateful to all the other donors, known 
and unknown, because without them we would be discussing about nothing. 
Still, this is a precedent, it is hard to deny; I'm sure the Board and 
whoever was involved in the decision is perfectly aware of this, and all 
the fuss that would have followed. Whatever decision you take, there 
will be someone unhappy with it; this is normal, that's how the world 
goes. Personally I'm fine with the logo, it is definitely much different 
from being a flashy banner or something that opens tens of popups. Is 
Virgin making money out of it? Well, I hope so. If they gain and we 
gain, we're estabilishing a virtuous circle, in the same way as some 
contributors promote themselves beyond wikimedia by supplying excellent 
contributions (which is very different from people only writing vanity 
articles about themselves).

Cruccone