[Foundation-l] Fundraising & Networking updates

Wed Jan 9 23:36:51 UTC 2008

On Jan 8, 2008 8:00 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > You really think the WMF endorsing a company's product in exchange for
> > > a large donation is "just fine"? What happened to neutrality?
> >
> > I think you misunderstand.  What Jimmy was talking about was: Company
> > X donates their product, something that Wikimedia needs, and Wikimedia
> > tells people the truth.. that it uses X's product and X can tell
> > prospective customers that the Nth largest website uses their product.
> >
> > He was not discussing X gives WMF $1 million, and WMF says X's
> > products are great.
>
> I may be misunderstanding what he meant (I certainly hope I am), but
> that *is* what he said. He explicitly mentioned the WMF (via himself)
> saying how great the product was. That is, by definition, an
> endorsement. I have no problem with the WMF publicly using donated
> hardware, but they shouldn't be passing judgement on it (other than by
> using it, which is implicitly judging it as fit for purpose,
> obviously).

I need to take a little more care with my rereading.  Indeed, on
review it looks like Jimmy was suggesting appearing in an advert and
providing an overt endorsement a product in exchange for cash.  This
seems closer to your view of the situation than mine.

Thanks for making me read it twice.

hm.