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By Mark D, July 29, 2011 2:41 pm

Gotta give Wiki (pedia/Media) credit. Last time they were running a campaign they recognized that splattering Jimmy Wales photo all over the place was attracting a ton of bad publicity (quote “This is exactly why we cannot leave Jimbo up for 2 MONTHS”). The laundry list of abuses by Jimmy Wales is amazingly long:

• Using Wiki money to pay for his flights/expenses to personal speaking engagements
• Editing his girlfriends wikipedia entry both while dating and after they broke up
• Editing his former partners wikipedia entry in order to make it seem like he was the sole founder of Wikipedia
• Taking in 5 and 6 figure sums for public speaking engagements, while claiming to make no money from Wiki media/pedia. The only reason people want to talk to him is because he was the cofounder.

Is just a taste. So it’s time to go with someone who can actually relate to the people that work/read Wikipedia instead of a smug douchebag. Ryan Kaldari is the opposite of Jimmy Wales. At least so much as he comes off as a hipster, a gentle person who isn’t about to take your money and waste it.

Even so, the same issues that exist with Jimmy Wales exist with Ryan Kaldari. Wikimedia Foundation is spending far too much money on everything else. For a not-for-profit organaztion, Wikimedia is sitting on more then enough money to allow it to survive for at least 3-4 years. The biggest problem currently? The amount of money the Foundation is sinking into the ever ballooning employee payroll. Hiring 32 people should not cost as much as it does for them.

The reality is that I’ve done these rants at least twice before, you can read the first one and then the second one. I beg you, if your really going to donate money donate it to someone that does good like wikileaks. Also take a trip to Charity Navigator and realize that they give Wikimedia a horrible efficiency review of 26.50. Hell, you’d almost be better off donating money to Encyclopedia Dramatica then Wikimedia.

It ends up after a little more searching I found out this is an ongoing thing. They are comparing different people and wording to Jimmy Wales appeal to see if they can use other people instead of Wales and still get the same amount of donations. If you see any of the ads, I’d say click through them, but donate nothing just to screw with their results.

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By Mark D, June 17, 2010 7:48 pm

Sorry about the shaky camera, those boxes are annoying to open. If anyone actually likes these I may try to do some more, depending on the response. I might actually polish them in the future.

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By admin, December 19, 2009 8:19 am

Having fun picking apart Jimmy Wales’ appeal for YOU to donate to Wiki. Of course lets not mention that he gets big money on the lecture circuit now, or that the corporate side of the Wiki is loaded moneywise. My comments in Italics

An appeal from Wikipedia (co) founder, Jimmy Wales

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By admin, November 20, 2009 2:28 pm

So this is a story of warning. I’m not saying it has ever happened, but much of this is fiction. Its like how “Let There Be Blood” is based on Upton Sinclair’s “Oil”. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and find out why love is stupid.

I happened to meet these two people who were engaged. John and Jane had been together for about six or seven years. Originally they were planing a wedding when I met them, but she became a bridezilla and they canceled it. They eventually became swingers. The fun fact in that is that she basically had total control over it. So she fucked who she wanted and if anyone showed interest in John she would chase them away.

To make matters worse, they get an apartment together. Since he’s too dumb to do math, he just gives her his paycheck every week and lets her do the budget. Since she liked to drink a bit too much they were always ending up short. Of course you couldn’t mention that to him, or maybe that they didn’t need a few luxuries they had when they moved in.

This situation proceeded to get more interesting. A friend from the past named Larry lost his job because he fell off the wagon again. Suddenly not able to pay for his house he was living back home in the area with his mom. Jane had a supreme crush on Larry and began going after him like a fly after rancid meat. Larry, disturbed because Jane was rather disgusting to look at, refused to have sex with her. He used the old standby, oh if you weren’t dating one of my best friends sure.

So, in a move of brilliance, she decides that a one night stand is worth ending an almost ten year relationship. They break up, she moves out, and Larry still won’t fuck her with a ten foot pole. So we end up having a chat with John, trying to convince him he’s better off. We tell him he’s been getting used, she’s a whore, she’s a controlling maniac. He decides to start writing poetry. The English language is not John’s strong suit. He then sends one of his poems to the “Library of Poetry” which is just a scam organization to get you to buy some massively overpriced book of crappy poetry. We try to inform him of this, as googling Library of Poetry and Scam comes up with more then enough evidence.

So what you may ask is the next step? Well six months come and go and in an absolute miracle John meets a new girl. Not just any girl, but basically a Godsend in comparison to his ex. So after the first date he starts talking about her to all of his friends. Now news travels like lightning in the group and Jane  finds out pretty quickly. Single and lonely she takes it upon herself to accidentally be hanging around his place when he has a date.

Amazingly, after three dates, Jane decides she wants to get back together with John. We all tell John to head for zee hillz. She mistreated him a majority of the relationship and basically used him. The new girl is just a slice of heaven and everyone  actually likes her. She isn’t controlling or insane. But John says “I’m in Love” and won’t hear any arguments. John and Jane get back together, and they both make each other miserable to this day.

What does this teach us? If you think your in love, Listen to your friends you dumbfuck. Sometimes the grass is actually greener on the other side. Sometimes you can be in a relationship for 10-15 years and have it end. Every ending is a new beginning, just go out there and try again. And in the end, Jane’s probably going to break up with him the next time she wants a guy and the guy says “Oh, I can’t while your dating someone”.

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By admin, September 4, 2009 1:21 pm

So now the dust has settled and Sirius has merged. Where has the average Sirius customer found themselves?

1. The once free internet feed with a subscription is no longer. You must pay for the higher quality stream now. Of course many people point out that packaging advertised the free internet stream as a way to listen when you were out of Satellite range.
2. That whole promise of getting Baseball and Hockey? Not so much.  Sirius claimed they couldn’t just add the channels from XM to Sirius. So you could pay for the best of XM. Of course that didn’t come with Baseball or Hockey games, just the NHL and MLB Channels which don’t broadcast games. A few weeks later they somehow managed to combine all the Sirius and XM music channels and broadcast them to both.
3. Now Sirius is adding a Licensing fee. This is something that Sirius had paid itself previously. It seems like nothing more then a way to raise rates while getting around their promise to freeze rates. Pretty much if you want the same service that you got before the merger you now have to pay two more fees on top of the rate you paid.
4. Extra charges for multiple subscriptions. Previously your 2nd sub only cost 6.99 and it now costs 8.99.

So where is the FCC? The same FCC that held up the merger for over a year because it was worried about a monoploy. Where are all the represenatives that complained about Sirius during this time? While the customers are getting gouged and getting rate increases in everything but name, they are silent. Its obvious that Sirius has broken its agreement not to raise rates. Just because of a technicality it should be allowed to dance all over the corpse of that agreement?

Apparently if you bribe the government to fight competition, government will fight for you. But when your the average citizen expecting to be protected from big companies, your fucked.