[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia struggles, Mozilla set for life?

[Anthony]

On 10/25/07, Peter Ansell <ansell.peter at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 24/10/2007, Daniel Cannon <cannon.danielc at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Wikipedia is not and has never been about making money.
> >
> > Wikipedia is an icon of the free media -- commercial ads remove us from
> > the free media, and make us quite the hypocrites.
>
> Having a donation drive with constant banners once a year demonstrates
> that it does cost money to run wikipedia, how free is it really?

I think that's the key.  Personally, I'd rather have opt-out targetted
advertising for two weeks out of the year than have untargetted forced
banner advertising for two months out of the year.

Eventually I don't think begging for donations is going to be
sustainable.  The banner ads asking for donations will continue to get
more and more annoying, and the desire for funds will continue to
rise.  But for now, it works.