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Top 10 Reasons Not to Donate to Wikipedia (view source)

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==3. The Wikimedia Foundation's leadership may be corrupt and inept.==

Jimbo Wales (hiring a liar "Essjay", then telling the press he "didn't really have a problem with it", not to mention [[Criticism of Jimmy Wales|other transgressions]]); Florence Devouard (now retired from the WMF, but noted for the infamous babysitting stipend she demanded); Angela Beesley (routinely edits the Wikipedia article about her company, Wikia, and adds external links to Wikia, all against Wikipedia community guidelines); Mike Godwin (edits Wikipedia anonymously, again [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard&oldid=260671486#Mike_Godwin_editing_Wikipedia_with_a_COI against community guidelines] that discourage self-promotion).

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~~==4. Wikimedia Foundation finances are suspect.==~~

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The Wikimedia Foundation has a history of unclear, tardy, and misleading financial statements. The early Form 990's filed by the Foundation stated that there was "no business relationship" between any of the Board members, even though 60% of the Board were employed by the for-profit enterprise Wikia, Inc.! Early on, the Wikimedia Foundation asked an attorney to design the organization as a membership body, but after his work was nearly complete, they [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alex756 scrapped the idea], realizing that a majority vote of members could unseat a corrupt Board of Trustees and demand line-by-line financial accountability. They didn't want '''that''' possibility to threaten them. Multiple top staff and former officers have privately expressed concern over [http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/10/business/fi-wikipedia10 financial wrongdoing] by certain board members. The former Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation (Carolyn Doran) was a wanted felon. The former executive director and head legal counsel resigned due to problems the organization had with him. The Foundation lacks a Board of Trustees with a wide base of civic and social stakeholders. They are all cronies and insiders who were incubated within Wikipedia. The Foundation is by design narrow and weak, reflecting only the interests of a dysfunctional social networking community.

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The current Executive Director and Deputy Director have a [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/41/FY_2008_09_Annual_Plan.PDF reported compensation budget] of $472,000, which is excessive for an organization of this size. Publicly-funded '''KUHT-TV''' in Houston has 71 employees, revenue of $11.5 million, and CEO John Hesse makes $158,628 in salary, benefits, and compensation. Wikipediots might protest, "But, but, but Houston has such a lower cost of living than San Francisco!" Okay, let's look at San Francisco.

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'''Earth Island Institute''' has revenue of about $6.5 million, 15 employees, (practically the same size as the Wikimedia Foundation, and headquarters in the very same San Francisco) but the CEO makes only $67,423. The Northern California chapter of the '''Arthritis Foundation''' has revenue of $5.1 million, but the CEO makes only $45,050. '''Child Family Health International''' in San Francisco has revenue of $4.0 million, it appears to have 11 employees, but the CEO makes only $82,000. All of this information comes from ''[http://www.charitynavigator.org/ Charity Navigator]''. The Wikimedia Foundation hasn't been reviewed by this watchdog group yet... but do you think the WMF would get the coveted "4-star rating"? HIGHLY doubtful.

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Ask yourself, how is Wikipedia inherently different now than it was in 2005? Honestly, there has been no major transformation there at the site. Just some server volume growth -- a terribly cheap commodity to manage. So, why have the gross receipts gone from $361,000 to over $6 million?

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~~'''Answer''': Compensation for people not really doing anything besides watch the servers, enjoy global jet-setting, and run damage control for Jimbo's dalliances.~~

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==4. Wikimedia Foundation finances are suspect.==

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The Wikimedia Foundation has a history of unclear, tardy, and misleading financial statements. The early Form 990's filed by the Foundation stated that there was "no business relationship" between any of the Board members, even though 60% of the Board were employed by the for-profit enterprise Wikia, Inc.! Early on, the Wikimedia Foundation asked an attorney to design the organization as a membership body, but after his work was nearly complete, they [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alex756 scrapped the idea], realizing that a majority vote of members could unseat a corrupt Board of Trustees and demand line-by-line financial accountability. They didn't want '''that''' possibility to threaten them. Multiple top staff and former officers have privately expressed concern over [http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/10/business/fi-wikipedia10 financial wrongdoing] by certain board members. The former Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation (Carolyn Doran) was a wanted felon. The former executive director and head legal counsel resigned due to problems the organization had with him. The Foundation lacks a Board of Trustees with a wide base of civic and social stakeholders. They are all cronies and insiders who were incubated within Wikipedia. The Foundation is by design narrow and weak, reflecting only the interests of a dysfunctional social networking community.

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The current Executive Director and Deputy Director have a [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/41/FY_2008_09_Annual_Plan.PDF reported compensation budget] of $472,000, which is excessive for an organization of this size. Publicly-funded '''KUHT-TV''' in Houston has 71 employees, revenue of $11.5 million, and CEO John Hesse makes $158,628 in salary, benefits, and compensation. Wikipediots might protest, "But, but, but Houston has such a lower cost of living than San Francisco!" Okay, let's look at San Francisco.

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'''Earth Island Institute''' has revenue of about $6.5 million, 15 employees, (practically the same size as the Wikimedia Foundation, and headquarters in the very same San Francisco) but the CEO makes only $67,423. The Northern California chapter of the '''Arthritis Foundation''' has revenue of $5.1 million, but the CEO makes only $45,050. '''Child Family Health International''' in San Francisco has revenue of $4.0 million, it appears to have 11 employees, but the CEO makes only $82,000. All of this information comes from ''[http://www.charitynavigator.org/ Charity Navigator]''. The Wikimedia Foundation hasn't been reviewed by this watchdog group yet... but do you think the WMF would get the coveted "4-star rating"? HIGHLY doubtful.

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Ask yourself, how is Wikipedia inherently different now than it was in 2005? Honestly, there has been no major transformation there at the site. Just some server volume growth -- a terribly cheap commodity to manage. So, why have the gross receipts gone from $361,000 to over $6 million?

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'''Answer''': Compensation for people not really doing anything besides watch the servers, enjoy global jet-setting, and run damage control for Jimbo's dalliances.

==5. Wikipedia is more a roleplaying game than an encyclopedia.==

MyWikiBiz

Bureaucrats, Check users, Interface administrators, Administrators (Semantic MediaWiki), Administrators, vuser

9,362

edits