Donate to Wikimedia *today*
You can give the gift of knowledge by donating to the Wikimedia Foundation!
If you were thinking of donating to the Wikimedia Foundation, then today is a good day to do that since your donation with be matched by Virgin Unite, the charitable arm of the Virgin Group. See “Wikimedia thanks Virgin Unite“.
This is the Foundation’s first fundraising drive since January this year. Unregistered users have been shown a permanent link calling for donations since then, which has decreased the need for quarterly fundraising drives. This drive is focused on the reliability of Wikimedia’s content and the long-term sustainability of every Wikimedia project.
You may have to read about Virgin Unite on Wikipedia since unfortunately their site went down within 12 minutes of being linked from Wikimedia’s site notices (these appear at the top of every page of every Wikimedia project - see “Slashdot effect“). If the site stays up, you can also donate to Virgin Unite’s projects.
This is the first time any organization has been allowed a logo in Wikipedia’s site notice. The thanks to Yahoo for the servers in April 2005 included a controversial link (but no logo) to Jimmy’s post on the Yahoo Search Blog and wasn’t attempted again until now. Wikimedia’s FAQ on matching donations is hoped to allay the concerns people might have about whether this constitutes advertising, with the official view being that it does not.
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Annabelle Andropov said,
December 30, 2006 at 10:14
Sorry, Angela, but I’ve been chronically insulted for my contributions to Wikipedia. Leading administrators call me a “troll” if I contribute to policy discussions, claiming I lack standing to comment on policy if I haven’t contributed extensively to the highly conflicted discussions around Wikipedia articles. Other favorite insults commonly pronounced by leading administrators include “sockpuppet”, “vandal” and “whiner”. Before administrators started turning on each other en masse, the current chairman of the board, Jimbo Wales, said anyone who ever criticized his administrators turned out to be an “ass”. Useful comments to policy and adminsitrative discussion are often deleted without comment, and the user blocked as a “troll” for daring to contribute to the ostensibly open “encyclopedia anyone can edit.”
Why would anyone who has experience with the environment at wikipedia donate cash if their donations of content and expertise have been refused, not courteously, but extremely rudely by people who all the while claim wikipedia is fueled by a spirit of love and cooperation. The selective attacks against anonymous users implies those so attacked are somewhat less than human. I need to know my money is going to a good cause before I hand it out. Wikipedia is not a deserving donor.
Annabelle said,
December 30, 2006 at 10:35
On the other hand, a wiki lets us correct spelling and typos after we hit send.
Above should read “Wikipedia is not a deserving recipient of my donations.”