Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free • Hacker News Board

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#11

Post by _delirium » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

chaosmachine wrote: post #4

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

They could definitely make a killing with just a single AdSense block at the bottom of every article. Maybe even just the top 1000 articles. Instead, we get places like Answers.com mass-duplicating Wikipedia content and slapping big image ads on it.

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

#12

Post by slig » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #3

Great, now how much more money do they need to buy the disk space necessary to stop deletionism?

All the editing history is archived, right?

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#13

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

If they just made it half as tall... it currently takes up 1/4 of the screen on my laptop when the page first loads.

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#14

Post by redthrowaway » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:40 PM UTC

chaosmachine wrote: post #4

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

They could definitely make a killing with just a single AdSense block at the bottom of every article. Maybe even just the top 1000 articles. Instead, we get places like Answers.com mass-duplicating Wikipedia content and slapping big image ads on it.

The express purpose is to remain neutral and to avoid conflicts of interest. They're not in it to make money.

Wikipedia isn't in the Answers.com business, and doesn't particularly want to be.

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:43 PM UTC

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

[deleted]

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#16

Post by w1ntermute » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:49 PM UTC

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

Get the userscript Jimmy, Go Away:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/91712

If you're using HTTPS-Everywhere (Firefox) or KB SSL Enforcer (Chrome), add

   https://secure.wikimedia.org/*

as an @include statement.

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#17

Post by sorbus » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:55 PM UTC

jeffclark wrote: post #10

Ryan_IRL wrote: post #2

I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.

Sure, it's annoying... but it worked 16 million times.

500 thousand times. 16 million dollars donated, but only 500 thousand donors.

EDIT: Paragraph wondering about A/B testing removed, as two people responded with links to the results of A/B testing, which I was not previously aware of.

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#18

Post by d2viant » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 10:58 PM UTC

I've always thought Google should just buy them. If you're going to index the worlds information, this is a good start. Google has the resources and power to make sure it remains alive and well.

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#19

Post by figure8 » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 11:00 PM UTC

sorbus wrote: post #17

jeffclark wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it's annoying... but it worked 16 million times.

500 thousand times. 16 million dollars donated, but only 500 thousand donors. EDIT: Paragraph wondering about A/B testing removed, as two people responded with links to the results of A/B testing, which I was not previously aware of.

blog.jess3.com/2010/11/wikipedias-crowdsourced-ab-ad-testing.html

Re: Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free

#20

Post by kmfrk » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 11:01 PM UTC

d2viant wrote: post #18

I've always thought Google should just buy them. If you're going to index the worlds information, this is a good start. Google has the resources and power to make sure it remains alive and well.

Are you sure the owners would accept the offer?

This allows Wikipedia to be truly free.