[WikiEN-l] Re: Ads on Wikipedia?

[Steve Bennett]

> > * I think that "targetted" schemes along the lines of 
> Google Adsense 
> > are a bad idea. If we have ads, they should be as little 
> connected to 
> > the content being viewed as possible, as a matter of integrity. 
> > Article content and article titles should have NO relation to 
> > advertising content. If it does, we are not only inviting 
> some raised 
> > eyebrows about content validity, but we're inviting people 
> to try and 
> > game the system by modifying articles in oh-so-clever and 
> minor ways 
> > to get their specific advertisements listed first.

I'm not sure I agree. A user visits [[Skiing]]. Ads for Rossignol,
Oakley and The North Face are shown. Where's the crime? The user
obviously has some interest in skiing - wouldn't he rather see ads for
big skiing brands, rather than ads for say, Volkswagen, ING and "Save
the bears from exploitation"?

> Well, current appeal could be called "begging". As Mav explained 
> already, we are far from having enough right now to fulfill our first 
> trimester needs. And we finished the year on our reserves. 
> So, "begging" 
> makes sense.

Sensible, but tacky. (IMVHO).

> The problems associated with "selling hard copies" are
> * making a partnership with a firm or organisation to 
> "produce the hard 
> copy" and then to "distribute" the content. Or should we set 
> up another 
> organisation to do that ourselves ?

Surely online publishers would lap it up if someone did the hard work of
filtering and cleaning up first.

Steve