Wikimedia Foundation Raises $25 Million in Nine Days

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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It looks like Wikipedia and its associated projects will be in operation for the foreseeable future. In its ninth and most successful fundraiser, Wikimedia collected $25 Million dollars in just a nine day period in only five countries, enabling the service to remain ad-free.

According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 483 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide.
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I actually interned with them for a Capstone course a year ago. They really offer an amazing service that is entirely operated by volunteers. The dedication that their community puts into creating articles, editing, and fact checking them is astounding.

I hope Wikipedia is around for a LONG time.
 
A Personal Appeal from Wikipedia Founder, Jeremy Wales;

Thanks for the new boat.
 
I said it in another thread discussing Wikipedia about the donations being made, and I feel it needs to be said here as well:

I like wikipedia because it has introduced me to a vast number of topics I have not previously considered looking into or researching. Wikipedia itself has not educated me to the point of a Ph.D on any particular topic, but that is not its purpose. There have been times I have literally spent hours reading through it, checking linked topics in the articles, and even the cited resources for more material on whatever subject it is I'm reading.

We sit and bitch and moan about how kids today are growing up into becoming completely and utterly stupid. And yet here is a resource that is only one google search term away to opening up their eyes and minds to whatever it is that interests them, or whatever they have to research for school. No, they won't be getting a bachelor's out of a few articles, and they won't be able to cite it for their reports, BUT the fact that it helps generates enough interest to willingly pursue higher knowledge should be worth SOMETHING. We should not complain and nag about something this easily accessible to a generation that is threatening to become the reality version of Idiocracy if something isn't done soon. We should be finding ways to refine it and turn it into an even better resource than it already is. Wikipedia is an excellent starting point to higher knowledge, and given how easy it is to access it on virtually any topic you can think of, I would rather have that as a resource than for it to not exist at all.
 
Wikipedia , the best place in the world for inaccurate information thanks to editors called "the internet".
 
Good on them. I can applaud a site that would rather collect donations instead of plastering ads everywhere.
 
Even if they're not super accurate all the time, I'm glad Wikipedia exists. There's a lot of articles that are useful and, for casual reading, it's a great site totally worthy of donation monies.
 
Remember that really terrible articles can be reported and the admins WILL do something about it. They can't check every single article so its up to the community to point out articles that are having trouble so they can be corrected.
 
There are some articles on Wikipedia that are soo good that the Mods have protected them from being further edited or you need permission to add something.

It is possible to have a completely factual article on Wikipedia.

Once again, its up to the community. When I was doing my project with them, they wanted us to find ways they could reach out to Internet users more to bring them to Wikipedia and get them to stay and become productive members and even admins.

There are handfuls of users that really care and spend most of their time dedicated to certain topics..and thats what they do, research and essentially typing up research papers..for free.
 
Its a great place for the laymen to get beginner's information on topic they know nothing about. You can't expect people to read up a research paper or get a book if they wanted some quick information about something they found interesting that day.

People will resort to the internet, and Wikipedia is just have them all easily accessible in one single site, and that's a good thing.
 
Thanks to anyone who donated. I like wikipedia, but like with anything important like seeing a doctor for something serious, a second opinion is always wise.
 
I'd rather they plaster 2 ads on a page than give them a $5 donation.

as long as it's not a damn popup, i'm ok with ads on the top.
 
I sent 20$ their way, it's worth it to me and it got me through a lot of papers and reports while I was in college. Every time they ask to bum a few bucks I always throw em a bone
 
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