[Foundation-l] Mission/Vision Statement

Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen at gmail.com
Fri Jan 5 20:14:20 UTC 2007


Hoi,
I do not know if you observe when people watch watch television, but 
people go to the toilet when there is an advertisement break. People 
tape a program and fastforward the ads. The notion that ads provide 
information is vastly overrated. Advertisements are typically ignored.

There is a website of a friend.. it has Google ads. When I feel good I 
hit an add knowing that it will benefit my friend. The notion that ads 
create a conflict of interest is an article of faith, it is not based in 
how people perceive things in real life. When you are patch is bald, and 
you want a solution AND you are lazy .. that is when an add helps you to 
get Miracle-Gro. When you are smart you buy it cheaply in bulk at a 
local shop and not over the Internet.

Thanks,
    GerardM

TIVO is an American product .. a prove that adverts in the USA are 
considered to be overly intrusive. Customers HATE ads.

James Hare schreef:
> The problem with advertising on Wikipedia is that it presents a conflict
> with our real mission: to provide neutral information to the peoples. In
> contrast, the goal of advertising is to feed one-sided information to people
> in a very flashy way. Showing only half the picture is what leads to
> conflict: people think Americans are ignorant pigdogs when there are some
> very intelligent Americans. Keyword-based ads would be terrible in this
> sense: in an article about fertilizers, if there is a Miracle-Gro ad, it is
> giving them unfairly better representation.
>
> Now, we could counter this by linking to the relevant Wikipedia article
> -next- to the advertisment. What if something non-notable were to be
> advertised? Then there would be no article...
>
> On 1/5/07, Teun Spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Anthony,
>>
>> what, according to you, is the place to speak up?
>>
>> I have considered this mailinglist as the place to speak up, anywhere
>> else?
>>
>> teun
>>
>> On 1/5/07, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>>     
>>> On 1/5/07, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Hoi,
>>>> I want to point out to all, that it says to provide the information
>>>>         
>> for
>>     
>>>> free in perpetuity. It does not say anything at all about
>>>> advertisements, sponsorships or whatever.
>>>>         
>>> Yep, it sure doesn't.
>>>
>>> IOW, if you object to there ever being ads on Wikipedia, now is the
>>> time to speak up, before the mission statement is adopted.
>>>
>>> Speak now, or forever hold your peace.
>>>
>>> Anthony



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