Should we allow Community/Commercial "Ads" in the Drupal Installation?

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
nickvidal's picture
Not at All!
50% (13 votes)
Just Community Ads, but Not in Core.
8% (2 votes)
Both Community and Commercial Ads, but Not in Core.
12% (3 votes)
Just Community Ads, Including Core.
15% (4 votes)
Both Community and Commercial Ads, Including Core.
4% (1 vote)
Community Ads in Core, Commercial Ads not in Core
12% (3 votes)
Total votes: 26

Comments

Background

nickvidal's picture

Please see this thread for background:
https://groups.drupal.org/node/379813

Nick, if you mean to restrict

robertDouglass's picture

Nick, if you mean to restrict this poll to the "core" distribution please update your title to say "core Drupal installation". Otherwise it is ambiguous whether you're trying to decide the roadmap for Drupal 8/9, or whether you're trying to erect a new Drupal.org policy for distributions.

If you see the options, it

nickvidal's picture

If you see the options, it addresses both core and distributions.

So it is a witch hunt.

robertDouglass's picture

So Nick, this is why I accused you of conducting a witch hunt. What is the expected outcome of this poll? Are you trying to rally a group of people to support your cool new idea for invigorating the Drupal Association by reaching a new audience in a new way through delivery of ads into Drupal core?

Or are you on a quest to erect a new policy that would force current distribution maintainers to re-engineer their already released software?

Furthermore, when does this poll close? When will you establish that you've gained enough votes to be representative of the many individuals, businesses, governments, schools, and groups around the world that use Drupal?

Polls on groups.drupal.org are not actually binding policy making tools, yet you're presenting it in that light:

I've created a Poll. Whatever the community decides, we should respect that

Please state your intention here. What is the final result that you feel should happen at the end of your actions?

.

dotpex's picture

+1

Dear Robert, My only

nickvidal's picture

Dear Robert,

My only intention here was to help the Drupal Association to diversify its revenue streams so it could fund the Drupal community and its infrastructure.

As I pointed out before, the idea was inspired by the Commerce Kickstart itself, but my focus was on displaying Community Ads, not Commercial Ads.

However, the idea was not well received (so far), and in fact people were shocked to learn that the Commerce Kickstart was already displaying Commercial Ads. I tried to bring the discussion back to the Community Ads without much success.

What I'm trying to do now is to open a dialogue with the community regarding the display of Ads within the software. This is something that should have been discussed a long time ago, certainly well before releasing any software.

Opening a poll for feedback is part of this initial process. Talking about the pros/cons of such approach is another. I've opened the poll for 2 weeks, but I'm well aware that this is going to take a much longer time to get settled, and certainly a definitive answer will not come out as a result from a poll.

Let me advice you again: please keep the dialogue open with the community, reach out to Drupal Association, and work towards a balanced solution. Admit to yourself that, given the importance of this topic, this discussion with the Community should have taken place before. Understand why the Community feels surprised and appalled. And try to explain to them why this approach is important.

It's interesting to know that, of all people, you are accusing me of witch hunt. Besides Ryan, I'm the only one who has manifested in favor of displaying Community Ads in core (and even Commercial Ads in distributions). Crucifying me will not help you gain sympathy from others for your cause.

Despite my own opinion, I'm open to listen to what other members of the Community have to say, and I'm willing to respect their final decision on the matter, independent from the result.

Kind regards,
Nick

Everybody rejected your idea

yukare's picture

Everybody rejected your idea of using drupal to make profit for DA and for other conpanny/people in the previous trhead, now you are trying again in another place ?
Drupal is an open source project, not to make profit for DA and another people/conpanny, which will happen in another contries, as they do with localize in Brazil.
The "community" events from DA are free for everybody? No, they have a cost and it is not low.
So please, do not use Drupal core to make money for yourselfs!

Everybody rejected your idea

yukare's picture

Everybody rejected your idea of using drupal to make profit for DA and for other conpanny/people in the previous trhead, now you are trying again in another place ?
Drupal is an open source project, not to make profit for DA and another people/conpanny, which will happen in another contries, as they do with localize in Brazil.
The "community" events from DA are free for everybody? No, they have a cost and it is not low.
So please, do not use Drupal core to make money for yourselfs!

Everybody rejected your idea

nickvidal's picture

Everybody rejected your idea of using drupal to make profit for DA

Of the 18 votes so far, half were against displaying "Ads", while the other half were in favor (giving the right conditions: community/commercial, core/distro). This is just an initial poll, so further research needs to be conducted.

About making a profit, let me repeat what I told you before:

The Drupal Association, as a non-profit that represents the whole Drupal Community, is working to generate revenue (not profit) to go towards funding educational/inclusive programs around the world.

The money is also needed to make the Drupal infrastructure better. If you have better fundraising ideas, please let us know.

The "community" events from DA are free for everybody? No, they have a cost and it is not low.

We put a lot of effort to organize an affordable Drupal event in your hometown (DrupalCamp Porto Alegre). Did you attend?

I am repulsed by the concept

decibel.places's picture

I am repulsed by the concept of "advertising" in open source community software.

"Community Notices" such as Drupalcons, Drupalcamps, DA Elections etc seem appropriate and inoffensive - but not likely to produce revenue, which is the stated purpose.

I agree with decibel...

friendlymachine's picture

As described, the idea seems harmless enough, but very prone to being abused in practice.

Why include something in Drupal that so many people hate? At best, it provides modest benefit, at worst, it hurts the project by making Drupal seem commercialized and spammy.

Many people installing Drupal are going to immediately wonder how the ads are being served and if they are being tracked. Huge turn off to some folks.

John Hannah
Friendly Machine

As described, the idea seems

nickvidal's picture

As described, the idea seems harmless enough, but very prone to being abused in practice.

Indeed, that's why rules must be defined and why community input is so important.

Why include something in Drupal that so many people hate?

I usually enjoy when features are displayed during software installation (specially when the process is long). Community is a big feature of Drupal. If these Community "Ads" are educational/informative, I think the response from the public will be very positive. Running a pilot and getting feedback is crucial.

As for Commercial Ads, this was not really the focus of my proposal, but perhaps the Commerce Guys can share with us the feedback they had so far (hopefully in an honest impartial manner). I mostly agree with everyone that this is a slippery road, but I can see the case where these "Ads", at least in the Commerce Kickstart distro, can be useful.

Anyways, I want to highlight that I believe it's important that none of these "Ads" appear without the consent from the Drupal Association (who represents the Community's best interest). By defining the rules today, we can guarantee that the community will be safe tomorrow.

Ads or Education?

mgifford's picture

I do think that there can be benefits of using this space, and indeed other spaces on d.o to educate people about the nature of open source.

When folks are installing Drupal for the first time, I do think it might be worth reminding people that it is "free as in kittens".

I do think that not pushing participation in the community (whether it's setting up a user account or going to a local Drupal event) is a missed opportunity.

I've done some brainstorming here:
https://drupal.org/node/2193871

Absolutely, this could be abused, so we'd need to watch how it is done. But it would be easy enough to try in the D8 alphas to see if it is effective or not.

Ads or education?

dfa457's picture

Totally agree with you!!

The Marketing of Drupal

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