Sunday, November 14, 2010

Wikipedia Should Allow Ads Already


...No ads. No profits. No agenda.

A decade after its founding, more than 380 million people use Wikipedia and its sister sites every month - almost a third of the Internet-connected world.

It is the 5th most popular website in the world. The other four have been built and maintained with billions of dollars in investment, huge corporate staffs and relentless marketing... [emphasis mine]

  If we want to build a company which aims at 'no profits', and yet needs money in order to maintain it, of course we must turn to donations and other kinds of support. Let's ask ourselves then, from where comes all the donated money? Yes, capitalism.

  So why must Wikipedia be afraid of putting ads on their website? Afraid of other websites offering 'free encyclopedia' with no ads? Isn't competition a good thing?  

  So suck up that 'no ads' ego, and do what Youtube does, introduce ads to have a certain return in profits. Yes, most Youtube users moan about those ads, but until they have better alternatives, people are still using it anyway. Remember, in capitalism, it's not just the big corporations who are seeking profits, the consumers are too, with their power to choose (the best bargain of a certain product)!

  Wikipedia can then use the profits they make from allowing ads to invest on better products for the benefit of everyone, being a charitable organization as they are. And hey Jimmy, without the 'billions of dollars in investment, huge corporate staff and relentless marketing', I don't think we'll ever get free access to Maps, Email, News or even those Search results linking back to Wikipedia! Maybe I'm wrong.

But the fact that we can now and then see Mr Wales's face at the top of Wikipedia pages - pleading for donation - renders the "no ads" title meaningless, as self-ads are still ads! (The title of this post must now be: Wikipedia should allow ads from other companies

1 comment:

  1. Ads come at a price as TVtropes found out the hard way:

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Administrivia/TheSituation?from=Main.TheGoogleIncident

    ReplyDelete

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