[Wikipedia-l] Phase III name change to MediaWiki and separate press releases

Sat Aug 9 05:36:00 UTC 2003

Ray-
> No.  We aren't '''going''' non-profit; we always have been.  What
> exactly does saying that we are going non-profit accomplish?

We can take donations. And this is the most essential and important part
of our press release. It's not like we need the publicity -- we need the
money. That's no platitude, it is a simple truth: we cannot grow if we  
cannot afford to expand our servers. The biggest danger to Wikipedia/ 
Wikimedia at present is that large numbers of good contributors will be  
scared away by continued blackouts and system slowness. Fixing this is our  
*top* priority. That is why we must emphasize that Wikimedia is now able  
to take tax-deductible donations, but we have to package it nicely and put  
most of the donation info on a dedicated page.

Therein lies the true art of publicity -- get people to give you money  
while still keeping them interested. Granted, the non-profit part is not  
very appealing as a headline. Nor is the 300K milestone, though. "Yawn,
Wikipedia has another X articles milestone. Dump it." That's really  
getting old fast.

Beyond that, we have to make people familiar with Wikimedia itself, to put
that organization in the foreground instead of Wikipedia, to the benefit
of our sister projects. Wikimedia is still unknown to virtually everyone  
except Wikipedia insiders. Everyone who reads our press release must get  
that name hammered into their brain. Wikimedia must be as well-known as  
McDonald's, as popular as Google, as erotic as Lucy Liu in a black thong,  
with an oiled body glistening in the heat, flashing a smile at you as she  
turns her luscious body away ... er, sorry, got carried away there.

As for the other projects, aside from server problems, an influx of new
people has never been a problem for Wikipedia, so it will not be a problem
for these projects either. Don't be afraid of being popular.

By the way, the milestone is 300K, not 250K. We have already passed the
250K milestone.

Regards,

Erik