[OSM-talk] Seperate Advertisements fom osm stuff please

[Robert (Jamie) Munro]

Joerg Ostertag (OSM Munich/Germany) wrote:
> Looking at the page
>  http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html
> without being logged in, I can't see the difference between our stuff and the 
> advertisements. Which means, i just got an e-mail from one of the users I try 
> to get working with osm who told me: "I tried to install the software you're 
> providing ... and my virusscanner sais it has a virus"
> And what i found after investigating more is: he tried to install one of the 
> software which was advertised by the google ads. I personally think we should 
> make much much more clear, that this is not software for OSM, but 
> advertisements. Because this is not a good revenue for us, since (luckily) 
> his virusscanner said it thinks this software has a virus in it.
> 
> Can we PLEASE make really clear which is advertisement and what is OSM-stuff. 
> I think, simply adding someting like
> 
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <H3>Advertisements by GoogleAd</H3>

I send Steve a patch to put the words "The adverts below support the
project. Login and they go away." above the ads, replacing the text that
was previously hidden below the ads, and he has applied it.

This is a stop-gap improvement, but I don't mean it to necessarily close
the debate. We still might be better using the space for a fund raising
"Please donate money" thermometer type display, or possibly a hybrid
approach - show a thermometer to some people and Google ads to others on
a 50/50 random probability, then abolish whichever earns the least money
after some period (or just leave both - that may earn more than either
will earn by itself).

Robert (Jamie) Munro

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