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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 December 2009, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=20000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 21,300 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues.  These links are being added 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 December 2009, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=20000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 21,300 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues.  These links are being added 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!

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 this 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 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!

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: