[Wikipedia-l] ads on user pages

[Stephen Gilbert]

--- Vicki Rosenzweig <vr at redbird.org> wrote:
> He's wrong, imho, but I'd like some comments, so it
> doesn't look like a 
> private argument
> between the two of us. Conversely, if I've
> misunderstood and ads on user 
> pages are cool,
> I want to know that.

Well... I'm undecided. It's clearly a service offered
by a single Wikipedian, rather than an official
Wikipedia money-making scheme. It's just a text ad,
not a big banner. And it is related to Wikipedia. I
know Eloquence has a bit on his user page to Paypal
him some money and he'll work on more Wikipedia
articles.

On the other hand, I'm concerned that allowing such
personal mini-ads will get out of control. Wikipedia
has a fairly high Google PageRank (my user page comes
up #3 or 4 in a search for "stephen gilbert"), and
people might think a link from Wikipedia would be a
good way to boost the visibility of their site.

For now, though, I can't say I'm strongly opposed to
mentioning his service. Now his ideas for the complete
restructuring of Wikipedia, on the other hand... :)

Stephen G.

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