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==Your donation will indirectly fund Wikia, Inc., which is not a charity.==

==Your donation will indirectly fund Wikia, Inc., which is not a charity.==

Your non-profit donation will ultimately line the for-profit pockets of Jimmy Wales, Amazon, Google, the Bessemer Partners, and other corporate beneficiaries. How? Wikipedia is a commercial traffic engine.  As of October 2011, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=25000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 29,000 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues and custom advertising deals.  These links are still being added to Wikipedia at the rate of over 500 per month.  Did you know that Amazon invested $10,000,000 in the for-profit Wikia venture?  It's therefore rather interesting that Wikipedia tolerates [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=50000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.amazon.com over 52,750 links] to Amazon's retail site from the supposedly non-profit, no-advertising, anti-spam Wikipedia site.  Isn't it?  Meanwhile, did you know that the popular movie site IMDB.com is owned by Amazon, and you can buy Amazon products directly from IMDB pages?  Well, surprise surprise -- there are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=215000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.IMDB.com over 217,600 links to Amazon's IMDB site] from Wikipedia.  No wonder Amazon particularly wished to invest in Wikia, Inc.  Its co-founder makes sure that the external linking environment on Wikipedia is hospitable for the Amazon link spamming machine!

Your non-profit donation will ultimately line the for-profit pockets of Jimmy Wales, Amazon, Google, the Bessemer Partners, and other corporate beneficiaries. How? Wikipedia is a commercial traffic engine.  As of October 2011, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=25000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 29,000 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues and custom advertising deals.  These links are still being added to Wikipedia at the rate of over 500 per month.  Did you know that Amazon invested $10,000,000 in the for-profit Wikia venture?  It's therefore rather interesting that Wikipedia tolerates [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=75000&target=http%3A%2F%2F%2A.amazon.com over 76,000 links] to Amazon's retail site from the supposedly non-profit, no-advertising, anti-spam Wikipedia site.  Isn't it?  Meanwhile, did you know that the popular movie site IMDB.com is owned by Amazon, and you can buy Amazon products directly from IMDB pages?  Well, surprise surprise -- there are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=285000&target=http%3A%2F%2F%2A.IMDB.com over 285,000 links to Amazon's IMDB site] from Wikipedia.  No wonder Amazon particularly wished to invest in Wikia, Inc.  Its co-founder helps insure that the external linking environment on Wikipedia is hospitable for the Amazon link spamming!

When Wales isn't enjoying all the link traffic to his for-profit site, he's actually actively in the process of self-dealing the volunteer community's labor into an exclusive content package for his own site.  How?  Well, take for example the fact that there was a Klingon language wiki hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.  Wales ordered it to be [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-August/023607.html shut down].  Where did it spring up again?  On Wikia, Inc. servers, of course!

When Wales isn't enjoying all the link traffic to his for-profit site, he's actually actively in the process of self-dealing the volunteer community's labor into an exclusive content package for his own site.  How?  Well, take for example the fact that there was a Klingon language wiki hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.  Wales then ordered it to be [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-August/023607.html shut down].  Where did it spring up again?  On his Wikia, Inc. servers, of course!

Now here is the really fascinating thing.  If you go to Jimmy Wales' "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales talk page]" on Wikipedia, and you ask him whether he feels that either this act of theft of the Klingon wiki or the obscene number of links to his for-profit site and those of his investors might be a ''conflict of interest'' or ''self-dealing'', Jimbo won't even have time to respond.  One or two of his sycophants will fairly promptly dismiss or erase your message; and if you try one more time to ask this question, you're likely to get blocked from editing Wikipedia altogether.  Go ahead, try it!

Now here is the really fascinating thing.  If you go to Jimmy Wales' "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales talk page]" on Wikipedia, and you ask him whether he feels that either this act of theft of the Klingon wiki or the extraordinary number of links to his for-profit site and those of his investors might be a ''conflict of interest'' or ''self-dealing'', Jimbo won't even have time to respond.  One or two of his loyal followers will fairly promptly dismiss or erase your message; and if you try one more time to ask this question, you're likely to get blocked from editing Wikipedia altogether.  Go ahead, try it! If Jimmy answers the question and allows discussion on it, MyWikiBiz will donate $25 to the Wikimedia Foundation.

If these facts are not enough to convince you that money makes its way through the back door to Wikia, Inc., then perhaps a look [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049340.html at the front door] is in order.  The Wikimedia Foundation announced in January 2009 that it was to begin paying rent to Wikia, Inc. on a monthly basis, using tax-advantaged funds from the Ruth and Frank Stanton Fund.  Did Wikia offer the lowest-priced rent solution to the Wikimedia Foundation?  Not at all!  After a [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049345.html frantic] back-and-forth [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049354.html attempt] by different [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049360.html agents] of the Wikimedia Foundation to [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049411.html explain] how this [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049389.html level] of [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049391.html self-dealing] was [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049393.html allowed to happen], Wikia's CEO Gil Penchina finally revealed (a year later, January 4, 2010) in a personal e-mail:

If these facts are not enough to convince you that money makes its way through the back door to Wikia, Inc., then perhaps a look [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049340.html at the front door] is in order.  The Wikimedia Foundation announced in January 2009 that it was to begin paying rent to Wikia, Inc. on a monthly basis, using tax-advantaged funds from the Ruth and Frank Stanton Fund.  Did Wikia offer the lowest-priced rent solution to the Wikimedia Foundation?  Not at all!  After a [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049345.html frantic] back-and-forth [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049354.html attempt] by different [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049360.html agents] of the Wikimedia Foundation to [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049411.html explain] how this [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049389.html level] of [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049391.html self-dealing] was [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-January/049393.html allowed to happen], Wikia's CEO Gil Penchina finally revealed (a year later, January 4, 2010) in a personal e-mail:

<blockquote>''They <nowiki>[the Wikimedia Foundation]</nowiki> approached us and asked if they could rent space on a temporary basis.. and I think it ended up being 4-6 months give or take.  I thought about giving it to them for free and I wasn't sure which was worse... getting accused of bribing a non-profit for giving it away, or getting accused of stealing for a non-profit for charging... so we ended up asking them to get competitng (sic) quotes from other landlords so that THEY could feel comfortable with the decision.''</blockquote>

<blockquote>''They <nowiki>[the Wikimedia Foundation]</nowiki> approached us and asked if they could rent space on a temporary basis.. and I think it ended up being 4-6 months give or take.  I thought about giving it to them for free and I wasn't sure which was worse... getting accused of bribing a non-profit for giving it away, or getting accused of stealing for a non-profit for charging... so we ended up asking them to get competitng (sic) quotes from other landlords so that THEY could feel comfortable with the decision.''</blockquote>

First there is a request to rent space from a hand-picked bidder, and only ''then'' a suggestion to get competing bids from other landlords?  It sounds like someone at the Wikimedia Foundation wanted to make sure that Jimmy Wales' for-profit company had the inside track on that bid, worth many thousands of dollars.

First there is a request to rent space from a hand-picked bidder, and only ''then'' a suggestion to get competing bids from other landlords?  It sounds like someone at the Wikimedia Foundation wanted to make sure that Jimmy Wales' for-profit company had the inside track on that bid, worth many thousands of dollars. (Wikia would [http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/10/13/wikia-names-ex-gracenote-craig-palmer-as-ceo replace its CEO] in 2011.)

Meanwhile in August 2009, Matt Halprin, [http://www.omidyar.com/team/matt-halprin  Partner of the Omidyar Network], was asked to join the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.  Halprin is charged with an Omidyar team that "pursues investments in Social Media", and Omidyar invested part of $4 million into Wikia, Inc. in 2006.  So, he's almost undoubtedly on top of the Wikia return on investment.  It looks very fishy to have a new WMF board member who's a partner at a firm that invested some portion of $4 million into the $14-million privately-held firm of the "Emeritus Chair" of the WMF.  In fact, you'd be hard pressed to explain how this is just a "coincidence", being that there were probably more than a thousand other equally-qualified stars of social media who could have been selected, who have not a single tie back to funding Wikia, Inc.  What are the odds?

Meanwhile in August 2009, Matt Halprin, [http://www.omidyar.com/team/matt-halprin  Partner of the Omidyar Network], was asked to join the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.  Halprin is charged with an Omidyar team that "pursues investments in Social Media", and Omidyar invested part of $4 million into Wikia, Inc. in 2006.  So, his company succeeds if Wikia makes a nice return on investment.  It looks very fishy to have a new Wikimedia Foundation board member who's a partner at a firm that invested some portion of $4 million into the privately-held firm of the "Emeritus Chair" of the Foundation.  In fact, you'd be hard pressed to explain how this is just a "coincidence", being that there were probably more than a thousand other equally-qualified stars of social media who could have been selected, who have not a single tie back to funding Wikia, Inc.  What are the odds? At the Wikimedia Foundation, the double-dealing simply defies the laws of probability.

==The Wikimedia Foundation's leadership leaves much to be desired.==

==The Wikimedia Foundation's leadership leaves much to be desired.==