[Wikipedia-l] Fundraising

Mon Jun 7 12:53:43 UTC 2004

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Jimmy Wales wrote:

> But to raise money, we have to ask.  People won't give unless they
> know that we need it, and unless they know how incredibly efficient we
> are with the resources that are given to us.

I think it's important to bundle the plea for money with an short FAQ on
resource use and plans for the future.

Last time round, I know a lot of people thought Wikipedia was doing the "we're
taking our toys and leaving"-stunt, semi-blackmailing the public for money.

Once it was pointed out that Wikipedia would struggle on no matter what, that
the servers were realistic in relation to the traffic (the sums are already
quite a bit larger than what most Free Software projects dabble with), etc.
people emptied their pockets.

It's also probably wise to tell the Slashdot editors not to post anything about
it until you ask them too, or we become subject to any odd angle, not to
mention timing.

But you already know this. :)

-- 
Daniel Mikkelsen
Copyleft Software AS