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Top 10 Reasons Not to Donate to Wikipedia (view source)
Revision as of 19:46, 10 May 2010
, 19:46, 10 May 2010→Your donation will indirectly fund Wikia, Inc., which is not a charity.: The Penchina e-mail
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 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!
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 will begin paying rent to Wikia, Inc. on a monthly basis, using tax-advantaged funds from the Ruth and Frank Stanton Fund.
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 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>
First the request to rent space, and ''then'' they suggestion to get competing bids from other landlords? That sounds like someone at the Wikimedia Foundation wanted to make sure that Jimmy Wales' company had the inside track on that bid, worth many thousands of dollars.
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?
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?