What about the little guy?

Story: Boycotting "Get the Facts" AdvertisementsTotal Replies: 9
Author Content
tuxme

Apr 04, 2006
7:22 AM EDT
I agree with you whole heartedly, Tom, but what about the smaller independent websites out there that rely on advertising such as Google Adsense? I run http://www.tuxme.com and have Google Adsense ads on my site just to cover my hosting costs. Believe me, there's profit to be made in Google ads but I'm not making any. Just checking the ads now, it has one of those context sensitive ads there and it's the Microsoft Get Facts campaign. I can't afford to not use Google Adsense.

Maybe all of us who rely on this service should email Google and ask them to stop serving these ads that are hardly context sensitive but rather offensive?
tadelste

Apr 04, 2006
7:28 AM EDT
We have an agreement with Google to exclude Microsoft advertising. I believe you can specify in your portal that they exclude certain sites.

Do you get revenue from Microsoft ads on your site?

grouch

Apr 04, 2006
8:04 AM EDT
Microsoft is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to anything it touches. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_c...

I recommend complete and radical surgery. Another option would be radiation treatments. Anybody got a spare hydrogen bomb?
tuxme

Apr 04, 2006
8:18 AM EDT
I don't think anyone ever clicks on the Microsoft ads. I'll see if I can get Google to exclude them for me. Thanks.
trueash

Apr 04, 2006
9:28 AM EDT
2 tuxme: Well, people may not click on the MS ads but they work anyway - after all, who cares about the "facts"? It's the impression they create that matters, and that's why boycotting is important. And even more important than the boycott itself is the noise that we will make about it. So, I myself will a) boycott anything with the GTF on it and b) will make other people I know aware about this fact ;-)
Libervis

Apr 05, 2006
9:18 PM EDT
I hear you tuxme. I however stopped running even google adsense ads on my sites because we don't support google anymore (due to their censorship in China among other things).

Instead, I've been trying to sell (with limited success) some text link ads manually. This could actually be a good alternative to adsense and possibly even more rewarding, so there's a suggestion.

We on Libervis Network have a clear Advertising Policy (http://www.libervis.com/advertising-policy.php) that is applied to the whole network, and we abide by that. This way our readers and members know where we stand and potential advertisers know what is or isn't accepted.

Thanks Daniel
grouch

Apr 06, 2006
6:50 AM EDT
Libervis:

Your advertising policy is confusing to me. What do you mean by "proprietary"? Linux is proprietary -- it's owned by the copyright owners. This comment is proprietary -- I own it and LXer.com owns this presentation of it.

I think you mean "closed" where you use "proprietary", but I can't be sure.
Libervis

Apr 06, 2006
12:24 PM EDT
I don't mean "closed" because "closed" is just opposite of "open" which implies only the open source code, not freedom. I mean unfree software.

But I think you have a point. Advertisers who may not necessarily be involved in FLOSS may find it a bit confusing. We should revise the wording and probably link it to fsf.org or something. :)

Thanks Daniel
grouch

Apr 06, 2006
3:45 PM EDT
I'm bad about doing the same thing, but it doesn't cost me anything to be confusing. ;)

1. Public domain: no owner (actually everyone owns it equally). 2. Proprietary: owned; not public domain.

2.1. Closed source: owned secret sauce; may be free beer, but you can't see the recipe.

2.2. Open source: owned but visible; may be commercial or non-commercial; some user freedoms may be restricted.

2.3. Free (by FSF definition) software: owned, open, free as in speech (the 4 freedoms of users are protected).

Libervis

Apr 06, 2006
6:34 PM EDT
Hehe.. Yeah those would be the right definitions / identifications for these terms.

I think linking the word free software to fsf.org should do the trick for dispersing confusion though.

Also, since advertisers are specifically refered to this policy when I sell advertising manually and person to person I am usually there to explain any confusion that could arise. The whole point of the advertising policy is to have a certain set of written rules for us to obey in regard to what kind of advertising we will allow. It's not that we couldn't do the same without it, but we'd forget more easily. This keeps me in line so to say. :)

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