Ya' know...I really don't understand the people who get all upset (and sometimes self-righteous) about some of the ads that appear in the forums now.
Yeah, ads for psychics and other miscellaneous woo are rather out of place.
Ya' know what? When I am in China, pretty much every site that I go to that has Google ads sees that my IP address is in China, and then gives me ads about how to get a Chinese bride, or getting acupuncture in China, or offering me a book to understand the "mysteries of the Chinese woman".
I have never once thought that any of those ads were endorsed by or in any way connected to the site that I was visiting. Its never even crossed my mind. Nor have I ever been offended or upset that a site I was visiting happened to display such an ad.
Seems like no matter what the JREF does, there are gonna' be people criticizing them (hey there, TA!). They are a non-profit organization, that provides a wide variety of valuable services (including this forum); and they need money to cover the costs for those things.
TA jumped all over James Randi for taking what he thought was a disproportionately huge salary for himself (and initially, I agreed...until I looked further into it), despite the fact that the salary James Randi received from the JREF was less than the amount of money he receives for his appearance fees and other income. In other words, if he simply kept the money that he receives related to his own actitivities, he'd be making more money than he does from his JREF salary. Its not a case of the JREF losing money to support James Randi; its a case of James Randi losing money to support the JREF.
And of course, we have all the hoopla from people who paid money specifically to support the forum, and then got upset because the powers that be don't run the forum the way that they want. Pretty much the same thing, in my opinion, as the guy who gets pulled over by the police, and then informs the officer that since he pays taxes, and the taxes pay the policeman's salary, that therefore the policeman works for him, and should do as he says. Supporting the forum financially does not in any manner, shape, or form give you 'voting rights', or control over how the forum is run. And if you're giving money in the expectation that it should give you a voice, then I say you're an idiot. By that logic, all Sylvia Browne would have to do would be to donate more money than you, and then she'd have more say in how to run the forums than you do.
Which is all somewhat tangential, yet nevertheless related.
The JREF has found another way to support the costs of running and maintaining these forums. Its a very commonplace and normal method -- ad revenues. Nothing terribly new, or controversial, or unethical, etc., about that. It decreases the burden on the JREF, who can then use their money for other things; and it decreases the burden on forum members to support the forums financially.
Yeah, its not perfect. We get these ads popping up that promote the very people/organizations/products that James Randi and the JREF seek to debunk.
So what?
Are more people going to head off and join Sylvia Browne because they saw a link to her site here? Very highly unlikely. More likely, if people click on the link at all, is that they'll also check out what people in the forums have to say about her. And that, I thought, is what we want.
Oh, but we're pushing them higher in the search rankings! We're helping them make more money!
The impact we're going to have on their search rankings will be minimal at best. And money? Anyone who goes and gives money to them was going to do so anyway. And meanwhile, rather ironically, this forum and JREF's activities are going to be funded, in part, by money that those people have had to pay to have their ads displayed.
Seems to me that the money's flowing in the right direction.
Now, if TA or anyone else can present evidence that people are seeing these ads and actually believing that it is endorsed by the JREF, please feel free to present that evidence, and I'll be willing to consider altering my position. But right now, the only response that it engenders in me is a momentary chuckle, at just how funny it is for an ad like that to be appearing in these forums.
A quote from TA's OP: "Oh for the days when scepticism occupied the higher moral ground"
Yeah, yeah, TA. I once found your posts on this stuff humorous...now I just find it boring. Instead of the constant attempts to reveal how much more finely tuned your moral senses are than everyone else's, why don't you simply go an set up your own non-profit skeptical organization, and run it the way that you think it should be run?
And the same to all the other critics.
I run a non-profit organization of my own, and I always have people second-guessing me, and telling me how I "should" be doing things. Ironically, pretty much every person that feels they have the 'right' to tell me how to run things are people who are not running such an organization themselves...in fact, it is almost inevitably those people with the least actual experience who claim the most expertise and moral superiority in telling me how I should run my organization.
For the record -- I do not agree with everything that the JREF does; and I've made my opinions very clear in those cases when I've disagreed. And I've incurred the wrath of others (not the JREF staff, or forum moderators) for daring not to simply bow in obeisance to the dictates of the powers that be. But the difference, to me, is that I don't even try to say that "This is how the JREF should be run". What I say is, "This is my opinion". I express that opinion, explain it, and then move on. I continue to support the JREF; but if I were to reach the point where I felt that the JREF was being run in an immoral or truly objectionable manner, I would leave the JREF, and this forum...and either find another one that better suited my personal preferences, or start one up myself.
There are issues that I feel are worthy of discussion and debate; there are policies and practices that, personally, I'd love to see improved or changed.
But ads?
Seriously people...there are a million issues of greater importance and significance -- to ourselves, to JREF, and to skepticism -- than these stupid ads.
And hopefully, if nothing else, the sheer length and monotony of this post will shut this particular topic down.
