I haven't commented on this yet, but I do have one little comment about the non-ideological, practical portion of this advertising thing.
The key here is that this isn't some randomly place Yahoo!/Google/MS ad on our site (that's another topic of discussion entirely), it's us purposefully choosing a product or service to push or help propagate. We therefore aren't talking about regular advertising, but rather about community endorsement of a product or service. By endorsing a product or service (free or not), we would be inherently biasing ourselves to an entire range of stories about competing products. Here an example that is so far removed from the current topic of discussion that we can examine it from an objective point of view: Say we as a community officially endorsed ...Ubuntu, one particular version of Linux . Let's make this easy: by endorsing Ubuntu all we would be doing was placing a download link on Wikinews to ubuntu.com and saying "we think that this is cool!" But that simple act would mean that we would be connecting ourselves to Ubuntu, and, by that association, calling down all of their competitors as an unintended side effect. Because of this we could never write a story about Windows, OS X, or any version of Linux again, or about the companies or groups who produce those products. We endorsed Ubuntu, so we're biased against their competitors in the eyes of our readers. Since we couldn't write about Microsoft without being accused of inherent bias , we couldn't write a story about Sony (PS3) or Nintendo (Wii), since we wouldn't be able to mention Microsoft (Xbox 360) in a non-biased fashion. Following that train of thought out farther, we basically couldn't write about the whole electronics and software industry, due to our minor, seemingly insignificant "endorsement" (if you even want to call a simple link an endorsement) of one product. Now I realize that is a rather extreme example, but there is a reason why most *real* news organizations take pains not to be seen to endorse things, services, people, or places. If you endorse something, you're screwed forever. We can *never* be seen to endorse *anything*. Not ever. gopher65 -------------------------------------------------- From: "Tristan Thomas" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:07 AM To: "Wikinews mailing list" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Wikinews-l] RfC: Free advertisements on Wikinews > I'm also with brian and Terin. I just can't see how it fits in with > either the wmfs aims or wikinews. Think of news Sources like the BBC, > they have nothing like this. even sky and CNN don't, although they > display ads alongside for money, that is something we are definitely > not going to be doing. > > Regards > > On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, Terin Stock <[email protected]> > wrote: >> I'm going to have to agree with Brian on this one. It just steps over too >> many lines for me.#Terin >> >> >> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 6:35 PM, Brian McNeil <[email protected] >> <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', '[email protected]');>> wrote: >> >> On Wed, 2009-11-04 at 00:07 +0100, Milos Rancic wrote: >>> Today I've noticed creation of the account on sr.wn which means "Jobs >>> Serbia". It is obviously that it is an account from some portal which >>> is used for job advertisement. Instantly I've got an idea: to offer to >>> that portal to make one page per day for linking the job offerings. It >>> is useful and it is relevant to many Wikinews readers, as well as it >>> may make Wikinews more relevant to its readers. >>> >>> But, I've started to think further... To allow original advertisements >>> or to require linking to a relevant site? For some time I was thinking >>> that it is better not to allow original content related to >>> advertisement, but, after all, I think that it is about wiki and wiki >>> should allow that. At last, advertisement is the part of almost all >>> daily newspapers and why not to put it on Wikinews, too? >>> >>> Further, advertisement may be about a lot of fields, not just about >>> jobs. It may be about housing, cars, whatever... >>> >>> So, the question is where to stop? At the beginning and not do that at >>> all or to allow every [legal] advertisement? Or something between? >>> >>> At one side, it is not so relevant at the English language area: there >>> is Craigslist for that. In many other language areas such portals >>> don't exist and they don't have a lot of chances for success because >>> there are not enough of users who would be willing to use one >>> specialized site for that kind of advertisement. >>> >>> At the other side, it is relevant as a concept for en.wn and other >>> Wikinews editions. If it becomes successful as a model, it may bring >>> new quality and many more users. >>> >>> You may guess that I am very interested for that idea :) However, I >>> think that it is very possible that I am inside of a small minority. >>> Tell me what do you think about that and, more important, which >>> problems may we have? (BTW, yes, it is about spreading free >>> information and I don't think that it is against WMF's goals.) >> >> It is an interesting idea, but would be pretty much against policy in >> terms of putting it in the main namespace. Really, I don't think any of >> the WN projects have the resources or knowledge to manage advertising >> job vacancies. You could end up directing people to fishing expeditions >> where their personal data is harvested for identity fraud. >> >> So, I'd say, not in line with project or WMF principles. Cannot be >> effectively policed. Should not be done. >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Brian McNeil <[email protected] <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', >> '[email protected]');>> >> Wikinewsie.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikinews-l mailing list >> [email protected] <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', >> '[email protected]');> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l >> >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikinews-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l > _______________________________________________ Wikinews-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l
