They don’t force you to give them money, and they chose not to force ads into a page already full of links. I think it’s a wise decision.

Use or don’t use wikipedia, for whatever reason you can find. But why be angry after a simple demand? Even if it sounds like begging, and I agree it can become annoying, it’s nothing to hate over. Just ignore and don’t use the website if it’s that bad…

By the way, 6 (or 7.5) million dollars is nothing. To run such a huge database (millions of pages constently linking themselves together, with a pretty sophisticated engine behind…) costs way over what they are asking… How much do you think Google spends on their search engine? My guess is you’d have a heart attack if you knew. Strangely, nothing is more simple for the end-user then a search engine. Same for wiki.

Anyways, with enough research, you can see (globally) where the money is going. Now if you want something detailed with the salary of each technician and engineer, well then maybe you should join the board. No organization releases extremely-detailed financial information or plan, because they could be held liable afterwards based on the released information (releasing precise spending plans in an ever-changing environment is NOT a good idea and it is almost impossible to achieve such a plan, therefore they would loose some credibility over the process).

Give or don’t give. Do you give to the Mormons? To the Christian Associations? To the Red Cross? To the Mozilla Foundation? To the Ronald McDonald’s Foundation? Do yoy give to charity? To homeless people? Maybe, maybe not. Well, each person has something which they believe in and in which they want give either time, either money, or both. I personnally believe in accessible education, I believe in the wikipedia concept, it does have many flaws, but I am confident it will continue to make progress. I gave to them. You don’t have to. But complaining and whining and asking stupid questions is just not right. “If you don’t like it, skip it”.

(Note that my comment does not adress anyone specifically, it’s mainly a reaction to the general hatred that I read on this blog page)

A Google Ads bar at the bottom of the page will not affect the page…

A while ago the founder of Wikipedia presented on TED that they don’t need money to run it, only $5,000 for one employee, and he was proud of that…

I believe they should have been transparent and clarified what it is for upfront.

Everyone wants to help but we also like to feel involved…

That could be what they need it for.

what with the Bomis babe – financing Wikipedia?

Despite the often repeated claim wikipedia has no ads but many detailed article on nosense. Nerd, any f*cking pornstar which nobody except her virgin fan know about

wikihistory
Next he opened Bomis, an ‘Adult Content’ website, which was followed by Nupedia, which morphed into Wikipedia.

Pfffft!

“we are free for everyone in the whole wide worlddddddd, but could you give me please some money. Pretty please? We are giving you “free” information.”

sounds like begging to me and asking for money for a so called “free” service. IF it were free they would have funded themself somehow and gotten money in a different way. They might as well just charge in stead of beg for donations, but that’s just meeeeeeee.

ps I need some donation for my ermmmmm beauty salon membership. yeah you can look at me for free, but I need to maintain it you see. So if you don’t mind donate some money to me please. I just need ermmm let’s say 1K. thank you ((i was kidding just mocking wikipedia))