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| * A [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=2902 quality, not quantity] drive in 2006, as well as the post-Essjay "[http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=7090 Credentials Verification]" boondoggle of 2007 were announced to great fanfare in the tech media, but once Jimbo Wales and his crew got the public relations boost they wanted, the initiatives themselves just vanished. | | * A [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=2902 quality, not quantity] drive in 2006, as well as the post-Essjay "[http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=7090 Credentials Verification]" boondoggle of 2007 were announced to great fanfare in the tech media, but once Jimbo Wales and his crew got the public relations boost they wanted, the initiatives themselves just vanished. |
| * A WikiProject of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Lists_of_topics topic lists] has existed since November 2007, but it is still half unfinished. | | * A WikiProject of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Lists_of_topics topic lists] has existed since November 2007, but it is still half unfinished. |
− | * A call in January 2010 to diminish over 50,000 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Unreferenced_Biographies_of_Living_Persons entirely unreferenced biographies] of living people down to a more manageable 20,000 by September 1, 2010 has met with failure. A full month after that milestone objective, over 24,000 biographies of living people still lurk on Wikipedia with not so much as a single reliable source to back up the content. | + | * A call in January 2010 to diminish over 50,000 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Unreferenced_Biographies_of_Living_Persons entirely unreferenced biographies] of living people down to a more manageable 20,000 by September 1, 2010 has met with failure. A full month after that milestone objective, over 24,000 biographies of living people still lurk on Wikipedia with not so much as a single reliable source to back up the content. To their credit, after yet another 14 months of work, the list was finally whittled down to less than 200. |
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| Indeed, in a way, all those big donations that [[Directory:Wikimedia_Foundation/Grand_Donors|overly generous donors]] contributed have missed the target completely. To paraphrase [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=28967&view=findpost&p=227814 one insightful observer], '''it is not the Wikimedia Foundation that makes the Wikipedia, it is the editors'''. Giving money to the WMF is like leaving a gratuity for a cotton plantation owner because you like the quality of work the slaves are doing. Giving the slave owners an even bigger carrot to dangle over the heads of the worker donkeys who are ultimately going to feel the stick, not taste the carrot. It's irresponsible use of money; unethical. | | Indeed, in a way, all those big donations that [[Directory:Wikimedia_Foundation/Grand_Donors|overly generous donors]] contributed have missed the target completely. To paraphrase [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=28967&view=findpost&p=227814 one insightful observer], '''it is not the Wikimedia Foundation that makes the Wikipedia, it is the editors'''. Giving money to the WMF is like leaving a gratuity for a cotton plantation owner because you like the quality of work the slaves are doing. Giving the slave owners an even bigger carrot to dangle over the heads of the worker donkeys who are ultimately going to feel the stick, not taste the carrot. It's irresponsible use of money; unethical. |