[WikiEN-l] Advertising on Wikipedia

[Steve Summit]

Anthony wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 11:45 AM, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:
>> You're entitled to your POV, but please don't make it sound as if
>> those who don't share it are irrational.
>
> It's not my intention to claim that anyone who doesn't share "my POV"
> (whatever that means)

Your point of view is that supporting Wikipedia through
advertising would clearly and rationally be a win-win-win
situation.  Many hold an opposing view.  You label their view
as being irrationally based.  I believe you are wrong to do so.

> "Here's some stuff we give you altruistically, out of the goodness
> of our hearts, use it however you wish" would be an irrational
> transaction in the first place.

How so?  (It's what *I* do, and I'm one of the most rational
people I know.)

> Incidentally, I wonder how you reconcile the position that this
> "stuff" is to use "however you wish" with the fact that you are
> arguing to restrict its use to only ad-free uses.

This is a preposterous and meaningless allegation.  When I say
that anyone is free to use my altruistically-donated content
however they wish, that includes using it to make money.
I'm not insisting that they don't use advertising; I'm insisting
that I (and, by extension, the rest of the so-minded Wikipedia
community) don't besmirch our altruism by doing so.