[LAU] poll : Advertising vs Linux Audio

[Patrick Shirkey]

On Sun, April 22, 2012 10:28 am, Robin Gareus wrote:
> On 04/22/2012 10:00 AM, Dan MacDonald wrote:
>> Consortium mailing list??
>
> yes, please don't top-post.
>
>> On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 4:13 AM, Patrick Shirkey
>> <pshirkey at boosthardware.com
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Some of you may know that we are having a discussion on the Consortium
>>> mailing list at the moment about the role of advertising in the Linux
>>> Audio Community. Specifically the discussion is focused around the
>>> possibility of having some paid ads on a *couple* of the subdomains
>>> that
>>> are hosted at Linuxaudio.org.
>>>
>>> The views for and against appear to be very polarised. I would like to
>>> know what other people who may not be monitoring the Consortium list
>>> have
>>> to say about this topic.
>>>
>>> One camp feels that advertising is an evil blight on humanity and
>>> should
>>> be avoided "where ever" possible. Although that appears to be a
>>> flexible
>>> "where ever" due to having supported advertising by some supportive
>>> companies in the past.
>>>
>>> The other camp thinks that advertising can be a useful way for the
>>> Linux
>>> Audio Community to promote brands that support Linux Audio and by
>>> association increase the general public awareness of the viability of
>>> using Linux Audio as a business platform and another way to potentially
>>> raise funds which can be used to advance the entire platform.
>>>
>
> The context:
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/consortium/2012-April/thread.html
>
> in short:
>
> Someone offered Patrick (the current content maintainer of
> lau.linuxaudio.org) $50 AUS for placing an advertisement on
> lau.linuxaudio.org for 1 year.
>

Correction USD $50

I asked for a clarification of the Policy for Linuxaudio.org in regards to
advertising. It was not specific to that one request as I expect there
will be a lot of businesses that would be interested in advertising around
the Linux Audio Community in the coming years. Due to the (imo) irrational
and hypocritical response I have received I am now very interested in what
other members of the community who are not part of the Consortium feel in
regards to advertising on Linux Audio related websites and content. I
would like to know how deep the resentment is embedded in the community.
It might help to explain a few other things I have noticed over the
years...


> A few linuxaudio.org board-members [1] who according to policy [2] can
> make decisions chimed in and opposed paid advertising for various reasons:
>
>  - bureaucratic overhead; someone needs to take care of accounting
>  - hosting: our current host vt.edu does not allow advertising
>  - political reasons: oppose online-marketing: person-tracking, keep
>    the community safe from deceptive practices.
>

All of these concerns have been addressed but all of the above is quite
seperate from the question being asked in this thread.

>
> [1] http://linuxaudio.org/contact
> [2] http://linuxaudio.org/policy
>
>
>>> Do other people here have any strong opinions on the usefulness of
>>> advertising in the Linux Audio community?
>>>
>>> Should it be avoided like the plague or does it have some value that
>>> can
>>> be integrated provided we set some boundaries?
>>>
>
> I'm not a member of the management-board; but my recommended reply to
> potential commercial businesses would be: "We don't want your money, we
> want your support, your cooperation and compliance. - We're happy to
> link to your site if it offers useful information, specs, software or
> supports linuxaudio - but we won't sell links."
>

I'm still not sure why you don't want businesses to give people round here
money. Are you also advocating the idea that *no one* should make money
from Linux Audio?

Are you also adverse to all forms of advertising in relation to Linux Audio?




--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd