From the requirement section of the RFP:
Quote: It will never have ads.

I always thought ads would ruin the site so when this first came up I thought - cool, no ads on the site, ever, even with new owner.

But then some ccMixter members said basically: look, if the life of the site is at stake, then a couple of text ads for non-logged in users is perfectly fine.

I hate to sound so fickle that a “Why not?” argument could sway me but I think I was swayed.

I’m just curious what people think about that?

I use Firefox and Adblock, so it wouldn’t really affect me at all. That said, I’m against ads here on principle and wouldn’t it violate the CC license to put the tracks up against ads?

The decision to not allow advertising is a noble one but I think it will be unrealistic to expect CCM to move forward without some form of advertising on it. To develop the site further will require funding so who will provide this. You? Me? Victor?

The type of advertising and the form it takes can be subtle or invasive. There are some sites I visit that offer great content (musical and non musical) but you feel you have to fight your way through the ads to get to everything.

Hopefully CCM will develop without ads but if at some point in the future the decision is taken to run them then lets hope they are controlled and tastefully executed so the advertisers reap their rewards and the users do not feel intimidated by them

Hmmmm… I’m of two minds when it comes to this; while I appreciate the fact that there are always bills to be paid, and I’d hate to see a great site capsize due to lack of funding, I am concerned about “slippery slope” scenarios.

While I am able to tune out/ignore (at least on a conscious level) the ubiquitous advertising that grows like warts over just about every “regular” website there is, I’m still grateful for not having to worry about whether my participation is indirectly supporting people whose primary goal is creating and herding a better-trained generation of brand-loyal impulse-driven consumers than the previous one…

Sorry for ranting, but when you’ve surfed YouBube and come across not only uploaded collections of favorite soft-drink commercials, but also witnessed furious arguments in the comments as to which brand is best, it tends to make one pause…

On the other hand, if there were companies which actually “got” what goes on around here, rather than simply having an agenda to subvert and eventually crush the underlying concept, I’d happily embrace such support!

OK, I’m done frothing at the mouth now. These aren’t the droids we’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along. etc…

Personally Ads would not bother me in the slightest, I agree that heading down the slippery slope would be all too easy to do and horrible, but if the ads were from companies that were related to the activities of the people involved in ccM (like DAW software, instruments, mics etc etc) then I don’t see anything bad in that. Click on them if you want, ignore if your not interested.
I work for the money making part a large non profit institution that has a pretty strong mission statement, “spread the increase and diffusion of knowledge——-“ the dept I work for has a mission that is too make as much bloody money as possible to help keep the institution and therefore the mission of the Institution going, It is tough to do one thing under the restrictions of the other but its not impossible–bit of give and take here and there certainly.
I would say the key factor is good old respect for the mission of both parties from both parties.

I’m in the “if tastefully executed, it’s fine with me” camp.

For me, the on-going functioning of the site in its CC mission is more important to me than what appears in the margins of the website page.

Any commercial exploitation will require a revenue model, and unobtrusive ads are a revenue model which offends me less than, to pull examples from other websites, a “mixter gold” subscription which denies cool improvement functionality to users who don’t pay for an upgrade, modifications of the sellaband concept, or other more intrusive uses. [Because of the oddity of the forum medium, let me hasten to say that I know that nothing in the RFP particularly admits or encourages any of my examples]. Ads have this virtue—they are what they are, no hidden agendae, no indirect motives, no guesswork about their revenue intent and effect.

I’m not against people trying to monetize traffic in this way, but I am against this site losing any of its key functionality as a collaborative community generating CC music. I know that we all are against that loss of functionality, so I’m not staking out a controversy. I intend instead to communicate into the ether, that, just as the RFP advises, this is a core value to the users here.

I’ll like to take one step back. The problem is not the “ads”; the problem is future fundings of ccMixter. “Ads” is a way to get funds.

What if instead of “ads” we look for other means of obtaining the needed funds? Brainstorming?

Also, it helps to know how much funding we are talking about, at least for the first year.