Kathryn Fenner asks that I pass this along:
Dear Kathryn B,
Here’s how the Wikipedia fundraiser works: Every year we raise just the funds that we need, and then we stop.
Because you and so many other Wikipedia readers donated over the past weeks, we are very close to raising our goal for this year by December 31 — but we’re not quite there yet.
You’ve already done your part this year. Thank you so much. But you can help us again by forwarding this email to a friend who you know relies on Wikipedia and asking that person to help us reach our goal today by clicking here and making a donation.
If everyone reading this email forwarded it to just one friend, we think that would be enough to let us end the fundraiser today.
Of course, we wouldn’t turn you down if you wanted to make a second donation or a monthly gift.
Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 679 servers and 95 staff.
Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 470 million different people every month – with billions of page views.
Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn’t belong here. Not in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.
When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.
Thanks,
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder
OK, so she asked me this last week and I’m just getting down to that email. But I think they’ll probably still take your money, even though it’s past the 31st.
And once a little more cash flows into the bradwarthen.com kitty, I’m going to give, too. I use this a whole lot more often than I do NPR, and I’ve certainly given gladly to that…
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Wikipedia is one of the most highly trafficked sites on the web. They would have no problem selling ads and making a ton of money doing it. It’s stupid not to sell ads. And the site could still be a “temple for the mind” or whatever even with ads.
I use Wikipedia all the time. Never crossed my mind to give it money. Instead I’ll keep using it for free and give them some advice instead – start making a profit guys.
I listen happily to NPR in the car and read it online–I can’t pull it in very well down in University Hill Holler, and give gladly there as well.
My dad is a huge jazz fan, and apparently the, um, frugality of that crowd has led to the dearth of jazz venues. You can’t run a club on a bunch of guys nursing a beer all night.
If you don’t support the activities and services you use and like, they may not be there.
Wikipedia is “like a temple for the mind?” Really??????????