3 ms·
Completely disagree. Even in corporate life, I work for a publishing company and our sales and editorial departments are completely seperate from that point of
by corin_ 16y ago
Completely disagree. Even in corporate life, I work for a publishing company and our sales and editorial departments are completely seperate from that point of view, in that if a bad review is going up, we won't stop it going up or edit the content just because it's for a product made by a company who currently have an advertising campaign with us.
And even more so in Wikipedia's case. They could even just have an external advertising company deal with all sales, so that even if advertisers complain their feedback doesn't get through to Wikipedia staff.
- lwhi 16y agoThe point is, a company can try to artificially shape public opinion by placing an advert. Without trying to be moralistic (or take any view on its relative merit) advertising _is_ largely an art of manipulation. In the context of Wikipedia - advertising would destroy any value Wikipedia has, because it would mean that companies with commercial interests would have a way to counter (and artificially influence) opinion. It would also create a situation where companies with the most money, would have the most clout. I think it would amount to a disaster if advertising was allowed in.