Re: Google ads on debian.org
On Tuesday 14 December 2004 15.17, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 01:12:51AM +0100, Alexander Schmehl wrote:
> > Or maybe we should just draw a line and say: No ads.
>
> That would involve the difficult problem of defining what is an
> 'ad'. Too hard, no point. Easier to deal with them as they come up.
I don't think this is a difficult line to draw for 99% of the cases.
- We will acknowledge sponsors who provide infrastructure/services to the
Debian project.
- We will not sell acreage (on the web, wherever) just to generate income.
The important word above is 'acknowledge': a small banner on the web linking
to the sponsor is ok. Plastering every list message full with
advertisement of the sponsor hosting the list server is, imho, not
justifiable.
Obviously, there will always be grey areas, and these must be handled on a
case by case basis, but I feel that rough guidelines that can be used as a
reference when those grey-area cases come up are useful.
There is, also, one important difference between the two categories
'acknowledging a sponsor' and 'selling ads': in the first case, Debian has
full control: we can chose if we want to work with a sponsor. Ads are
typically just sold, and often are syndicated - as, for example, with
google ads. Debian has zero control about what ads will appear.
cheers
-- vbi
(Imagine a pr0n vendor booking ads with 'Debian Linux' as keywords, because
he's heard about hot-babe and porn-view...)
/me runs away fast
--
featured product: SpamAssassin - http://spamassassin.org
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