[Foundation-l] A modest proposal: ads on wikipedia.com

[David Gerard]

On 23/04/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:

> So, do we in fact need ads (or other income streams) to keep the sites
> live or not? David seems to be suggesting we do. Others have suggested
> we do not.


I'm suggesting we might find it very useful indeed, rather than living
hand-to-mouth as we do now.

Of course, it might stimulate serious thought to securing other
revenue streams, as it seems to be doing, to stave off such an
unaesthetic idea.


> Jean-Baptiste is right, that Wikimedia is a nice oasis. So is that a
> first-world conceit that doesn't mean much, or if we were to introduce
> ads might we not all lament it in five, 20 years when we see the
> Foundation wasn't going to collapse, after all?


Not just the possibility of failure, but the possibility of not doing
nearly as well on our mission as we could. "To educate everyone with a
broadband connection" is not entirely convincing.


- d.