[Foundation-l] Mission/Vision Statement

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
You make the issue too simple. When I am to be asked if I want 
advertisements, than the answer is no. When /you /are to be asked do you 
want response times that are on average 50 seconds, than the answer is 
likely to be no as well.

When you say that billions are spend on adverts, then you hit the 
jackpot. This is indeed one place where we can find the money to 
continue the upward trend that we have both in content, in bandwidth, in 
people using our content/people contributing to our content, in 
languages and in projects. My problem with your stance is that you 
provide no credible alternative in the face of a demonstrated need for 
money. The current budget ignores all the things we could do if we had 
indeed more money than needed for our immediate requirements.

To demonstrate that you can think differently; in a contract for adds, 
you could specify that organisations can not advertise on their own page 
and on the page of their competitor. This would wipe away your Micro$oft 
inspired comment.

PS When will you start taking the real issue seriously? The issue is we 
need MORE money and we will need EVEN MORE money given our growth rate.

Thanks,
    GerardM


teun spaans schreef:
> Thx,
>
> Indeed, I'd like to make clear that our vision should encompass both
> kinds of "free".
>
> Advertisements are likely to tarnish the strictly neutral image of our
> projects. take the example of the Microsoft articles on wikipedia.
> Microsoft the company, and articles on their products.
> Using the google context ad-aware system, the most logical ads would
> be for exactly ... uh, these microsoft products. You cant fool me -
> even if the people could easily distinguish articles and ads,
> unconsciously they would be influenced.
>
> Waerth en GerardM argued that people ignore ads. If they were right,
> companies would no longer spend a dime on ads. But they are spending
> billions on them.
>
> teun
>
> On 1/6/07, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>   
>> On 1/5/07, Teun Spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Anthony,
>>>
>>> what, according to you, is the place to speak up?
>>>
>>>       
>> This thread is certainly a good place.  If you think "without
>> advertisements" should be added to the mission statement, suggest it.
>> It would be interesting to see who, if anyone, objects.
>>
>>     
>>> I have considered this mailinglist as the place to speak up, anywhere else?
>>>
>>>       
>> There's a talk page for that mission statement draft.  Not sure where
>> else it's being discussed.
>>
>> Anthony