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http://wikimediafoundation.org/donate/2007/psa/

I think he has a good point. Anyone else?

Moderators feel free to move this to offtopic but I know it will just get lost in the spam threads.

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Effectively wikipedia is trying to expand into other languages and make themselves more accessible to spread knowledge to the world.

ok.. a noble and helpful cause..

aside from that what is your point..

maybe you guys may know people that can donate to it? Maybe there are people who can afford to give that are in this community.

they have plenty of money already. really. and that guy is a ridiculous slimeball.

To clarify: yes, it's a lovely thought, but jimbo wales is a very sketchy character, pitching platitudes like the oft-quoted "imagine a world where everyone had free access to the sum of human knowledge..." now add the subtext to that "where I have the final control over what is and is not shown, what is and is not editable".

besides, wikipedia not being complete enough in languages of 3rd world countries is probably not the real problem here. There is a basic economic level that must be reached before people can even access wikipedia (having pc's and connection etc..), which mostly limits people in developing countries.
You don't help that by donating to wikipedia.

Yeah, he is a slimeball. Whats with all the closeup shots of his eyes and hands and crap?

If you want to give to charity, there are lots of charities to give to which actually help people to not die. If you want to give to life-improving internet volunteer exercises, give to UF or otherwise help to support spring-related projects.

Wikipedia is an absolutely wonderful thing, but its huge. Its established. Everyone knows it. Try finding an underground cause that really needs your help to keep on going to throw your money at.

Just the fact that he is talking about giving kids laptops in third world countries and what have you already shows that they are rolling in more than enough money to, say, keep their servers online.

Saktoth wrote: Just the fact that he is talking about giving kids laptops in third world countries and what have you already shows that they are rolling in more than enough money to, say, keep their servers online.

actually the wiki guy isn't the one behind those free hand cranked laptops he does it for free I am sure if you google you can find out all about it.

As far as I am aware the wikimedia association and the OLPC $100 laptop foundation are not related and exist as totally seperate entities. He juste used OLPC laptop footage as an example for his video.

Although I wouldnt be surprised if they had partially funded the project.

Can someone give me the story as to why this guy is seen as soo terrible?

I'll say the same thing I said in the other thread...

I feel we need more information. Wikipedia isn't a charity, for this project to have any credibility in my mind I need to know more about what is being done. The argument that wikipedia is somehow saving the third world seems weak to me... My biggest fear is a bunch of people jump on board with this thing and it turns out to be a 1 dollar to Jimmy wales pocket, 1 dollar to server costs...

Is this specifically a charity program where 100% of profits go to hiring translators to transfer wiki content into foreign languages? That isn't clearly expressed...

Wikimedia wrote:Donate today, and help us with our wish list├óÔé¼┬ª

If you and 99 other people donate ..

* $200 ├óÔé¼ÔÇ£ We can make Wikipedia available in developing countries through DVDs, books and pamphlets.
* $100 ├óÔé¼ÔÇ£ We can pay for two Wikipedia Academy events in Africa.
* $60 ├óÔé¼ÔÇ£ We can send three students to our annual Wikimania conference.
* $40 ├óÔé¼ÔÇ£ We can deliver 100 million pageviews of free information!

I dont even know what a Wikipedia Academy or a Wikimania conference are. Keeping the actual serves online (which is really what wikipedia is) is obviously the least of their priorities.

It perturbs me that server costs are on that list at all. TBH

wikipedia probably provides 100 million page views of "free information" a month, globally, so if 100 people donate 40 dollars ($4000), all we're doing is feeding money to the pocket of jimmy wales because he has 1 less server bill to pay.

Not a charity.

AFAICS the only item on that list worth donating towards is the top item... and I really don't see how that particular item is expanding the availability of wikipedia in obscure languages as much as it is stroking jimmy wales sense of self satisfaction.

WTH is a wikimania conference? Is wikipedia a religion now?

WTH is a Wikipedia Academy event?

I think wikipedia is a worthwhile website and i think it is worthwhile donating to ensure it stays online.

There is no reason why jimmy wales should have to foot the bill alone for the site, its not some vanity blog (and even then, people donate to those too if they utilize/enjoy the content).

But the rest of the stuff is BS AFAIC.

Of, and, according to the wikipedia article:
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charitable organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida.

So, it says it is a charity.

Saktoth wrote:I think wikipedia is a worthwhile website and i think it is worthwhile donating to ensure it stays online.

There is no reason why jimmy wales should have to foot the bill alone for the site, its not some vanity blog (and even then, people donate to those too if they utilize/enjoy the content).

But the rest of the stuff is BS AFAIC.

Of, and, according to the wikipedia article:
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charitable organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida.

So, it says it is a charity.

Valid, but I think it's frigging scummy to post the faces of starving Africans and Indians as the good reason why people should donate to wikipedia.

SwiftSpear wrote:

Saktoth wrote:I think wikipedia is a worthwhile website and i think it is worthwhile donating to ensure it stays online.

There is no reason why jimmy wales should have to foot the bill alone for the site, its not some vanity blog (and even then, people donate to those too if they utilize/enjoy the content).

But the rest of the stuff is BS AFAIC.

Of, and, according to the wikipedia article:
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charitable organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida.

So, it says it is a charity.

Valid, but I think it's frigging scummy to post the faces of starving Africans and Indians as the good reason why people should donate to wikipedia.

very scummy. if you have to guilt-trip people with something like "you have the internet and a nice warm house, this african boy has HIV, and hasnt eaten in 2 weeks, give us money!" you obviously arent providing a service that people feel is worth paying for.

Sadly swiftspear, this definition of scummy means that you've instantly blacklisted thousands of charities across the world, primarily HIV and poverty charities.

He was using the images of 3rd world countries to highlight that change is happenign and si needed and that we can help by rewritting wiki pages in foreign languages. Not that we should donate money to the wikimedia foundation to pay for 3rd world server costs.

In the mean time how is he supposed to pay for all these server bills when wikipedia is his fulltime job?

All of these reactions are over the top and unjustified. Wether you like or dislike the founder of wikipedia is irrelevant. Thats not the point of the video, and to criticize the effort to help people based on an opinion of its founder is disrespectful.

If you spent 40 years peddling orphans into mines, making single mothers slave in 70 hour a week jobs, and swindling OAPs out of their pensions, and had a change of heart, and went good, would you think its fair that people denounce your good cause because of your personal character flaws?

as long as that single mother keeps doing her 70 hour job i can live my life doing nothing <3

Did I mention she's in a wheelchair, has breast cancer, and 9 kids to look after with no childcare money or family?