News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free by _delirium on Saturday January 01, 2011 @05:39PM (#2058665)
One of the things people are worried about with that it would allow something close to paid additions/rebuttals to Wikipedia articles, at least if ad buyers were good enough at the AdSense targeting. The goal is to have a neutral article that covers all viewpoints fairly, but then you'd have this little box where whoever pays the most money would get the opportunity to insert a link to their take on the subject.
Re:Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free by axod on Saturday January 01, 2011 @06:10PM (#2058758)
Surely if you just have general 'run of site' advertising which isn't targeted to specific articles, there's little chance of conflict.
Re:Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free by InclinedPlane on Saturday January 01, 2011 @07:42PM (#2058975)
Exactly. Or to put a finer point on it: there becomes a much greater pressure to insert ads as content.

Why pay for an ad sense spot if you can just insert your own ad into the relevant wiki article?

Re:Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free by jimmybot on Saturday January 01, 2011 @08:54PM (#2059136)
So all the merchants that can't buy an ad aren't trying to subtly insert ads as content currently? Advertisers only have one choice now--try to get a mention, try to get a link, perhaps as a source--do whatever it takes to get into the content of the article.

If Wikipedia sold ads, they would have the alternative to buy an ad instead; I don't see how the problem of advertisement-as-content would be worsened when given a choice to buy an ad. If anything, I think it's the other way around.