[AV Media Matters] Ads or No Ads

[Jim Lindner <jim@vidipax.com>]

Well the votes are in. Thanks everyone.  The general consensus is
somewhere between no and it doesn't matter because it is just text on
the bottom that you will not usually see anyhow (at least that is how
this is being done on some other lists).

There have been a few interesting points that I had not considered. One
being that emails going to a company location belong to the company and
they might not like getting adverts from a competitor.  Others
suggesting that Topica has to pay for all this somehow and this way is
not really so bad - particularly considering that I will donate the
proceeds. Others suggest that this list is a bit of a refuge from the
advertising that has become prevelant on the net and just about
everywhere these days. As most of you realize - that is one of the
benefits of a moderated list - I simply to not allow the stuff to get
through although sometimes it is tough to decide whether it is of
significant enough interest to the members to post.

So...
What I will do for now is not volunteer to be an early list to subscribe
for advertising and let them work all of the bugs out on other lists.
After they have done this I suspect that exactly what they are proposing
will become clear. I have a few other tiny lists that I can experiment
with and see what happens. If the advertising is a line or two of text
at the end of a post and the payment is not too small as to make it
silly then we can try it out and see what the story is - as mentioned I
will donate the funds to an appropriate association or something similar
(open to suggestions). If they will be using banners or other graphics
that will slow down transmission then we will not do it (unless forced),
and if forced I can investigate other places to park the list.

BTW the list now has almost 650 members! Welcome all.

jim

Jim Lindner - President
VidiPax - The Magnetic Media and Information Migration Full Services
Company
Telephone 212-563-1999
www.vidipax.com
Moderator of A/V Media Matters@topica.com