Ray Saintonge wrote:
No. We aren't '''going'''
non-profit; we always have been.
In spirit, yes. In fact, yes. But in the law, Wikipedia was just a
project of Bomis, Inc., a for-profit corporation.
Incorporating Wikimedia is an administrative action
which probably
doesn't mean much to the general public.
I think it means a lot to a lot of people. There was significant
distrust of me for a long time. For one thing, people are not willing
to 'donate' money to a for-profit corporation, and with good reason.
Stressing that we have a quarter million articles
appeals to the
bandwagon effect. Remarking about our competitive position in relation
to other on-line encyclopedias makes sense because because it draws
people into a competition where they can feel a part of the winning
team. Being mentioned by CNN means something; being high rated by Alexa
is noteworthy; having a news article say, "These guys know their stuff,"
says something about our credibility.
I do agree with all of this.
Even more important is stressing our core principles
of NPOV and making
knowledge broadly and freely available to everybody. Stressing also
that participants can share the responsibility of safeguarding those
core principles is a further strength.
That's right, but we can't put too much into a press release. For a
press release to get press, it has to be "punchy", it has to have a
"hook", a storyline that attracts the attention of journalists.
--Jimbo