Wikipedia Donation Scam
Do not donate to Wikipedia. It has became a scam.
Wikipedia One Hundred Million Dollars Rich
- [The Wiki Piggy Bank: Wikimedia grows rich as Wikipedia donations are used for political causes By Bryan Lunduke. At https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4458111/the-wiki-piggy-bank ]
Do Not Donate to Wikipedia, 2017
Here's another take. The numbers are somewhat different.
Other sources thru the years:
[Will Wikipedia honour Jimbo's promise to STOP chugging? By Andrew Orlowski. At http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/16/jimmy_wales_wikipedia_fundraising_promise/ , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
The fundraising banners on Wikipedia this year are so effective that halfway through its December fundraising campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation has already exceeded its $25 million donations target for the entire month, reports The Register. A few weeks ago, Jimmy Wales promised that the Wikimedia Foundation would “stop the fundraiser if enough money were raised in shorter than the planned time”. But there is no sign of the Foundation doing that. When asked about this more recently, a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson remained non-committal on ending the campaign early. The most recent audited accounts of the Wikimedia Foundation showed net assets of $92 million and revenue of $82 million. None of this money, incidentally, pays for writing or checking Wikipedia content – that's the job of unpaid volunteers – and only $2 million are spent on internet hosting every year.
[wikipedia exceeds fundraising target but continues asking for more money https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/12/16/1631223/wikipedia-exceeds-fundraising-target-but-continues-asking-for-more-money , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
[Stop giving Wikipedia money By Mark Devlin. At http://newslines.org/blog/stop-giving-wikipedia-money/ , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
[Annual Wikipedia fundraiser raises community hackles By Rob Price. At https://www.dailydot.com/business/wikipedia-fundraiser-banner/ , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
[study reveals wikimedia foundation is awash in money https://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/11/1229222/study-reveals-wikimedia-foundation-is-awash-in-money , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
[Jimmy Wales accused of editing Wikipedia for donations By Wikinews. At https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales_accused_of_editing_Wikipedia_for_donations , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
Jimmy Wales's Net Worth
Jimmy Wales's net worth is over 1 million.
[Jimmy Wales Is Not an Internet Billionaire By Amy Chozick. At [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/magazine/jimmy-wales-is-not-an-internet-billionaire.html ] , accessed on 2017-03-19 ]
Wikipedia Early Days
I did donate $2 in 2003-12 when they were small. (my user name User:P0lyglut) That's when the server crashes due to traffic and they needed it and they were not well known. Today, Wikipedia is a very rich and big org. Jimmy Whales is very rich. (as reported and “proved” by email, one single speaking engagement is 6 digits) By his track record, he isn't particularly a good person. He just “happened” to hit the “collective power” idea at the right time and was one of the guy who helped it.
Jim tried to erase the other co-founder; according to online reports and i verified it somewhat. He also ran porn site during the time (his company Bomis), and tried to distance himself away from the word “porn” and replace it with “glamour photography”. He also tried to create a commericial entity to get money out of Wikipedia (Wikia, among others).
Wikipedia doesn't need that much money today. Not even sure the money is used properly. I've read that the donated money is not well accounted (but haven't spent days to research it).
Wikipedia has been tremendouly helpful to me. It is the number one site i value the most, of ALL websites. I spent several hours reading it every day since about 2004. However, the wealth of Wikipedia has little to do with Wikipedia itself today. It's the internet, and YOU. Wikipedia simply lives by its fame. If Wikipedia suddenly dies tomorrow, tens of sites will compete as replacement, almost overnight and possibly even better quality. (For example, google's knol project is declared dead due to wikipedia; similarly there's several existing encyclopedia sites, for example, wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger's Citizendium.)
Spread this info. Check facts. (much of the facts in this post can be checked starting at Jimmy Wales and following the citations)