

Another appeal from Jimmy Wales - enko
http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/is_there_no_escape.php

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mrr2
Considering the sheer breadth of knowledge Wikipedia makes available to the
public for free, I think we can all afford the millisecond it takes us to
scroll away from the banner ad. Better yet, I think we can all throw in some
money towards the project.

As for him being an ambassador to a watch company, its a pretty common concept
as most Swiss luxury watch makers support everyone from athletes to
humanitarians. Even if he makes money off of it, it isn't his obligation to
donate it all to Wikimedia. In fact I think its a pretty smart concept to
showcase Wikipedia to the type of clientele who might actually buy such
watches.

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InfinityX0
Although mildly annoying, the appearances of these banner ads make me more
interested in whether or not Wikipedia is A/B testing these, whether they're
using some kind of intelligent segmentation, whether they even HAVE someone
knowledgeable of that on staff, and what the results thereof are.

~~~
rarestblog
[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Banner_testi...](http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Banner_testing)

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ludwigvan
I expect FSF to follow suit with rms making a personal appeal:

<http://stallman.org/photos/rms-full-size.jpg>

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aaronsw
Apparently he's an official sponsor (and they took that ridiculous photo for
him):

[http://www.mauricelacroix.com/en/Brand/Ambassadors/Jimmy_Wal...](http://www.mauricelacroix.com/en/Brand/Ambassadors/Jimmy_Wales.html)

How much is he getting paid and is he donating it to Wikimedia?

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clojurerocks
The one thing i dont understand about wikipedia is didnt they ever hear of
videos and photos and things like that. Everytime i go to the site i feel like
i entered a portal to 1990. Its ugly beyond belief and actually difficult to
find proper information because of that.

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xenophanes
Enough already. Jimmy Wales, former(?) serious Objectivist and Ayn Rand fan.
Now he's begging for charity regularly. Pathetic change.

~~~
wlievens
Really? Wikipedia is pathetic unless he starts charging for it?

~~~
xenophanes
A Randian begging for money is pathetic. He either did a 180 on his principles
or he's just ignoring them (exactly as Rand told people not to do).

And it's not like he wrote a paper explaining why it turns out Rand is wrong
after all.

I'm not the only one to think this:

[http://knol.google.com/k/why-ayn-rand-would-decry-jimmy-
wale...](http://knol.google.com/k/why-ayn-rand-would-decry-jimmy-wales-
wikipedia#)

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markkat
I don't blame him. He has a celebrity asset. Seems reasonable to cash in.

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jfb
Am I a bad person to want to punch Jimmy Wales in the junk after those
horrible "I look like Larry Ellison and I want your money" banner ads?

