Should Wikipedia Sell Advertising?

The Narrative Fallacy writes "The LA Times has an interesting story on the state of Wikipedia's finances and how with 300 million page views a day, the organization could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if it sold advertising space. Without advertising the foundation has a tough time raising its annual budget of $4.6 million. The 45,000 or so individuals who contribute annually give an average of $33 each, so campaigns, which are conducted online, raise only about one-third of what's needed. As Wikimedia adds features to its pages, such as videos, costs will rise. 'Without financial stability and strong planning, the foundation runs the risk of needing to take drastic steps at some point in the next couple years,' said Nathan Awrich, a Wikipedia editor who supports advertising."

Comments

Patch TUESDAY MoFos - Get Your MoFos Patched !!

[Anonymous Coward]

Patch TUESDAY MoFos - Get Your MoFos Patched !!

Get them before they Get you !!

Oooh.

[Moryath]

Jimbo can embezzle even more if they do that!

Re:Oooh.

[Bombula]

Generalized downmodding is a flawed concept, in my opinion; it should only be available to report cases of abuse (cursing, ad hominem, racism/hate-speech, etc). When given the choice between offering constructive or destructive criticism, the vast majority of slashdotters choose the quicker, easier, more seductive path. It's pretty sad, but that's the baseline human response: give someone a inkling of power and they abuse it or use it to bully others (like shite cops do) rather than using it to constructive ends. The more anti-social the individual, the worse the problem is - you do the math yourself on the slashdot crowd... As smart as people here think they are, they forget one of the simplest, easiest, most useful rules of human conduct: Thumper's Rule. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Slashdot's system is comfortable and familiar, but it's getting dated. I think it's time for an overhaul, and many others have had good suggestions for updates/refinements. I think the elimination of generalized downmodding along with the elimination (or at least expanding) of the 5-point cap on upmodding would be good improvements. Some of these things are already implemented on sites like digg.com to good effect.

fake weather crime against you/me/manatees etc..

[Anonymous Coward]

robbIE's ads for stock markup FraUD billionerrors makes him buyassed, which wouldn't be so bad, except for the censorship feature. as we learned before? all things made by man fail, so, mammonism leads to.....

let yOUR conscience be yOUR guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. there are still some choices. if they do not suit you, consider the likely results of continuing to follow the corepirate nazi hypenosys story LIEn, whereas anything of relevance is replaced almost instantly with pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking propaganda or 'celebrity' trivia 'foam'. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on yOUR brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071229/ap_on_sc/ye_climate_records;_ylt=A0WTcVgednZHP2gB9wms0NUE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080108/ts_alt_afp/ushealthfrancemortality;_ylt=A9G_RngbRIVHsYAAfCas0NUE
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=c4b5414371631707&ei=5087%0A

is it time to get real yet? A LOT of energy is being squandered in attempts to keep US in the dark. in the end (give or take a few 1000 years), the creators will prevail (world without end, etc...), as it has always been. the process of gaining yOUR release from the current hostage situation may not be what you might think it is. butt of course, most of US don't know, or care what a precarious/fatal situation we're in. for example; the insidious attempts by the felonious corepirate nazi execrable to block the suns' light, interfering with a requirement (sunlight) for us to stay healthy/alive. it's likely not good for yOUR health/memories 'else they'd be bragging about it? we're intending for the whoreabully deceptive (they'll do ANYTHING for a bit more monIE/power) felons to give up/fail even further, in attempting to control the 'weather', as well as a # of other things/events.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=video+cloud+spraying

dictator style micro management has never worked (for very long). it's an illness. tie that with life0cidal aggression & softwar gangster style bullying, & what do we have? a greed/fear/ego based recipe for disaster. meanwhile, you can help to stop the bleeding (loss of life & limb);

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/28/vermont.banning.bush.ap/index.html

the bleeding must be stopped before any healing can begin. jailing a couple of corepirate nazi hired goons would send a clear message to the rest of the world from US. any truthful look at the 'scorecard' would reveal that we are a society in decline/deep doo-doo, despite all of the scriptdead pr ?firm? generated drum beating & flag waving propaganda that we are constantly bombarded with. is it time to get real yet? please consider carefully ALL of yOUR other 'options'. the creators will prevail. as it has always been.

corepirate nazi execrable costs outweigh benefits
(Score:-)mynuts won, the king is a fink)
by ourselves on everyday 24/7

as there are no benefits, just more&more death/debt & disruption. fortunately there's an 'army' of light bringers, coming yOUR way. the little ones/innocents must/will be protected. after the big flash, ALL of yOUR imaginary 'borders' may blur a bit? for each of the creators' innocents harmed in any way, there is a debt that must/will be repaid by you/us, as the perpetrators/minions of unprecedented evile, will not be available. 'vote' wi

Slashdot did it

[spazmolytic666]

Even slashdot went to adverts. What makes wikis any better?