[OSM-talk] ads removed

[Steve Coast]

After a week's trial and discussion I've removed the ads.


I'm not doing this because it's really the right thing to do from a  
scientific perspective, that is, do they have a good cost/benefit  
ratio? As they haven't had the time to see. Instead, it's basically  
because of the opinions expressed here.

I think it's a mistake to try and build a Socialist Utopia rather  
than an open map. Naturally, building Free things like operating  
systems and encyclopedias lends itself to those who think money or  
advertising is inherently evil. By refusing advertising out of hand,  
and being skeptical and cynical of things like Yahoo! and AND I can  
tell you that the vocal minority has pushed very valuable people away.

I think the lines have been drawn. Wikipedia is at the continual  
mercy of fund raising drives, and debian has lost out to ubuntu in  
large part due to ideologically driven people. I can see we're going  
down that road, and I think it's a shame. It'll work, no doubt. But,  
that same moral clarity expressed against money and advertising needs  
as a corollary the clarity of what's being lost.

have fun,

SteveC | steve at asklater.com | http://www.asklater.com/steve/