A Personal Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
Dear Reader,
Today I am going to ask you to support Wikipedia with a donation. This might sound unusual: Why does one of the world’s five most popular web properties ask for financial support from its users?
Wikipedia is built differently from almost every other top 50 website. Unlike popular websites, such as Facebook and Digg, We have a small number of paid staff, just twenty-three.
Wikipedia content is free to use by anyone for any purpose, including pedophilia. Our annual expenses are less than six million dollars, which includes my dinners and massages in Moscow. Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which I founded in 2003 as a proxy for building my personal brand.
At its core, Wikipedia is driven by a global community of more than 150,000 people who have nothing to do – all dedicated to sharing misinformation and disinformation freely. Over almost eight years, these losers have contributed more than 11 million articles in 265 languages. More than 275 million people come to our website every month to access misinformation, free of charge, free of advertising and free of truth.
But Wikipedia is more than a website. We share a common cause: Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human stupidity. That’s our commitment.
Your donation helps us in several ways. Most importantly, you will help us cover the increasing cost of managing global traffic to one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Funds also help me support my jet-set lifestyle — making it easier to get laid, obtain speaking gigs and raise capital for my side projects.
Wikipedia is committed to growing my brand world-wide, by recruiting hot new female volunteers and building strategic partnerships with top restaurants and escort agencies.
Wikipedia is different. It’s the largest compilation of collective stupidity in history, written by the unemployed and uneducated. Like a strip club or brothel, we don’t believe advertising should have a place in Wikipedia. We want to keep it free and strong, but I personally need the financial support of thousands of people like you.
I invite you to join us: Your donation will help keep my Wikipedia gravy train going.
Thank you,
Jimbo Wales
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How is the revenue spent?
On expanding my universal consciousness via wine, women, song and, occasionally, mind-altering substances.
How is the Wikimedia Foundation funded?
I’m not quite sure. I’ve been so busy raising money for other things. I’m pretty sure we’ve been living off the returns from our investments with Bernie Madoff.
How much money are you hoping to raise?
As much as possible. Thanks.
What are the Foundation’s specific goals?
To support my indulgent, jet-set lifestyle and maintain my reputation as an important person.
What should I do if I think you’re a piece of shit and a fucking scumbag crook and don’t buy into your bullshit scheme?
Donate money to a legitimate charity that actually puts most of the money it raises to good use.
I think you are a little too harsh on Jimbo. I mean at least he knows how to party compared to Scoble and Arrington.
I consider him in the same bracket as Tim Orielly. When everything goes tits up they will be long gone with their money before then.
I find it a bit shameless that you promote your best friend so blatantly. I’m assuming he didn’t even pay you for this editorial coverage? I worry you will dilute your brand if you continue to manipulate us, your loyal readers, with obvious appeals to support your friends and family members this way. Wikipedia needs more money? What about the customer’s yachts?
Julie: Jimmy Wales is my customer, not my friend. Don’t get it twisted.
Totally off-topic (well.. not totally, since it’s about personal branding), but I thought it might give you a good source for an eventual future article on the man (source: superfrenchie.com):
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I wanted to point out that famous France bashing vlogger Loren Feldman is now working on a whole series of puppet viral videos for a french wine company!
I mean, how ironic is that???!!!
Check this out: http://lebeast.com/
Source: http://www.harpers.co.uk/product-news/wine-news/7206-clink-wines-unleashes-first-wine-brand-le-beast.html
Loren’s been hired by a french company (with funds from UK?) producing wine in Languedoc and using the brand name LE BEAST for their label, in reference to famous “Bête du Gevaudan”.
Loren uses a puppet, some sorta wolf speaking english with a terrible french accent (actually more like a mix of german and italian). The blog argues about the law ‘LOI EVIN’ ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Evin ) that precludes advertising of alcohol on TV and Movie Theatres since 1991. This laws presents indeed a gap as it lacks saying anything about the internet ads.
While some large wine retailer networks in France, such as NICOLAS franchises do retail their wine on their own french website, it appears french courts ruled recently against internet ads: http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2008/online-alcohol-ads-illegal.html
Personnaly, I think both ads and retail should be forbidden on the internet for alcohol. In USA, for example, it is highly hypocritical to forbid purchase of alcohol in grocery stores if you’re under 21, while you can easily buy online.
In France, alcohol and boozes among teenagers (and even kids!) is a rising problem, and since a teenager may own a credit card, it is impossible for online retailers to figure out how old is the customer and may therefore deliver to his door a pack of whisky (or wine for that matter), while his parents are at work or on a trip. That’s just me though, I’m a good drinker but I think France is actually right to be so severe on this topic when it comes to kids alcoholism.
Finally, I’d like to give kudos to Feldman to be the biggest french ass licker of the blogosphere. After all, he went from bashing both a french hotel and a restaurant during his honeymoon, to turn actually into the best promoter of France!
But one shouldn’t be surprised, given how he managed to bash Le Meur, Scobble, Arrington, Calacanis, Ted Murphy etc… yet to act as their best friend once hanging out and squatting their home in the Valley, or while meeting at Le Web ‘08.
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That being said, I think his new videos are awesome (at least much better than the boring Shel Israel ones) and this Le Beast character very friendly, reminds me a lot of Triumph The Insult Comic Dog though ( http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x115u4_triumph-the-insult-comic-dog-star-w ).