[Vim-l] Ads in articles

[Benjamin Fritz]

On 6/8/08, Martin Tournoij <carpetsmoker at rwxrwxrwx.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 08, 2008 at 02:54:43PM +1000, John Beckett wrote:
>  > Last Friday, the wikia-l mailing list announced these changes:
>  >
>
> > [snip]
>
> >
>  > Clearly we will wait and see what happens. I didn't notice any mention of the type
>  > of ads, or what anonymous users will see. If ads are animated, we'll have to try to
>  > move our wiki elsewhere IMHO.
>  >
>  > John
>
>
> I understand that a site like wikia has to make a profit, and one of
>  the best ways is using advertisements, but this seems a bit too much
>  IMO.
>
>  Can't the Vim wiki be hosted at the Vim site (www.vim.org)?
>
>
>
>  --
>  Martin Tournoij
>  carpetsmoker at rwxrwxrwx.net
>  http://www.daemonforums.org
>
>  Cheops' Law:
>         Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
>

I took a look at the proposed new style, and it really doesn't seem
too intrusive to me. As long as they stick to their statement that
"distracting movement in the ads will be kept to a minimum," I don't
see the problem of a static ad floated to the right of the article
text. If it does become a problem, I suppose we can look around, but I
think a great deal has already been invested in this site, and quite a
push of this new site has already occurred on the mailing list and IRC
channels. I think we would damage the interest in the site (which has
just begun to grow) if we suddenly move it yet again.

Obviously, if it becomes a problem (with popup windows or distracting
animations or sound in the ads) we should move, but I would like to
believe that those in charge of Wikia understand this, realizing that
they could lose a lot of visitors and probably a few wikis if they do
anything outrageous. I have never had a problem with tasteful, static
banner ads (which is pretty much what they are talking about here),
and if I did, good browsers these days have the capability (through a
plugin or built-in) to block content you don't want to see.

I'll look through the thread you mentioned, John...but for now, I'd
recommend not making any plans to move.