I have been noticing banner advertisements on Drupal.org for quite some time now.

This is fantastic as this brings additional revenue options for Drupal Association.
My company has been providing Drupal Services to International clients for almost 3 years now and we are one of the larger Drupal Development shops with a large development team based in India.

Last year when I enquired about the procedures and rates for banner advertisement placement on drupal.org, I was told by an Association Member that they were doing affiliate program trial to see general response. At that time also,I had specifically asked for the placement on Drupal.org paid services forum.

Here is an ad that comes up off and on on paid services forum.

Now, It has almost been a year and the banner advertisement in paid services forum still existed so I again enquired with Drupal Association about Banner  Ad Placement for my company.
I wrote to Drupal Association last week to get some clarification on process, rates, etc for advertisements since I started seeing few more advertisements on Drupal.org other sections. It made sense for us to explore the possibilities of advertising on Drupal.org for my company.

Here is another ad that came up on Support page.

I was given aloof answers.  In a separate thread, I’ll post the details but here is what I was told by Drupal Association member in a nutshell.

1. Drupal Association revenue from Drupal.org advertisement is “Small”
2. There is no formal process and no standard price list. ( At least I couldn’t get one.)
3. The way Ad Placements are done is discretionary and is for “People who do good work on drupal.org”
4. You have to advertise on Google Adsense(Right hand side spot) first for some time before you can request banner ad placement. (Wonder if everyone who has got placement have gone through this process)
5. Even after 1 year, they were still running affiliate tests(or maybe some favoritism) on drupal.org and  there is no timeframe when this will end and when and if at all there will be a transparent process that is shared with everyone.
6. According to the email response I received from Drupal Association Member, Drupal Association has got hundreds of companies interested to advertise on Drupal.org. Its time consuming for them to work through these companies. ( 1 -Think about $$ that these companies can bring and 2 – If they don’t have time then why the heck are they holding key positions in Drupal Association).
7. The Drupal association is not in the business of supporting individual business needs(except someone with undertable dealings?). They are there to support the Drupal project.( So contradictory – how can one ignore advertisement revenue from HUNDREDS of companies and boast that they work in support of  Drupal.org!!)

I have asked few specific questions to Drupal Association and am still waiting for response.

1. For everyone’s interest, we need clear consistent guidelines that association follows in this regards
   and how a Company A is evaluated for a Certain program v/s Company B for banner placement. How can one objectively assess who are the “People who do good work on drupal.org”?
2. While I agreed to consider the alternatives, I want to know what is different and so special in other advertisers who have got banner placements already on Drupal.org?

I think opening up advertising on Drupal.org is  very good and will bring in good amount of revenue for Drupal Association. However, we absolutely need consistent guidelines and transparency in operations of Drupal Association so that there is level playing field available for everyone – so that not one person or few insiders enjoy the luxury of tweaking rules for their own benefits.

I am hopeful that sooner or later Drupal Community will want to know more on this.