On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 03:33:56PM -0400, S. Massy wrote:
> I do not think there is anything wrong with advertising itself, nor is
> there with combining advertising and Linux or Linux audio. If you and
> some like-minded peopole wish to develop a site/platform promoting,
> supporting, and/or showcasing Linux-related projects, businesses, and
> artists and use advertising to both fund and promote it, I will not
> complain and may consider using, recommending, and potentially joining
> it. *However*, I do *not* feel advertising is relevant to nor belongs on
> linuxaudio.org, its wiki, or its mailing lists.
There's advertising and advertising. There are some forms I'd
happily accept in some circumstances (e.g. ads for pro audio
equipment in a specialised journal) and there are some forms
I'd never accept - being forced to listen to ads in a restaurant
for example).
That's certainly true. I would certainly prefer SOME LOWPROFILE advertising in some journals/magazins (like Keys, Recording (in germany) etc).
And I certainly don't want them in a context where I'm searching
for factual information rather than opinion. There's a good
reason why e.g. Wikipedia wants to remain free of ads.
A lot has to do with the integrity of who provides the information
on a channel that is sponsored by commercial advertising.
When I started reading 'Studio Sound' 40 years or so ago, it
had very strict editorial policies. At that time they also
published real equipment reviews (based on actually measuring
and testing the items being reviewed) rather the subjective
blablah and personal impressions that are presented as a review
today. I remember that this frequently resulted in conflicts with
advertisers whom often cancelled their inserts as a result.
Today you'd be hard pressed to find any journal that keeps up
such standards. Or a commercial TV network that has a critical
'consumer interest' program. Advertising has corrupted almost
everything, and the web has multiplied the effect thousandfold.
That alone is IMHO reason enough to oppose it.
Ciao,
Now to the other direction of advertising (ads of others (linux friendly vendors) on linuxaudio.org). I understand your point, but I disagree. The example you state is flawed, since there is a fundamental difference between 'Studio Sound' ,which relies on revenue partly generated by ads, and the Linux audio community, which does not rely on anything other than the commitment of its members. The independency of the LAC from external vendors prohibits those vendors from influencing the decision processes in the LAC. And yes, I know that LAC wouldn't be strictly financially independent (costs of host for linux-audio.com, mailinglist etc). But since the vast majority of the developers in the LAC aren't on the paylist of such vendors the above statement still holds. Ads from external vendors can then be regarded just as a plus, but not a must be as for 'Studio Sound'.