Today, I am asking you to make a donation to support Wikipedia. (Wikimedia Foundation which oversees Wikipedia is currently 5 Million in the green for 2009, up from 3 Million in 2008.  During the same period the Salaries of Wikimedia made the biggest jump from 1.1 million in 08 to 2.2 million in 09. No other expense Doubled)
I started (co founded with Larry Sanger) Wikipedia in 2001, and over the past eight years, I’ve been amazed and humbled to see hundreds of thousands (although there are more vandals then actual contributors) of volunteers join with me to build the largest encyclopedia (Doesn’t an encyclopedia have to be factual?) in human history.

Wikipedia isn’t a commercial website (Thats what Wikia is for, and the reason most of the bigwigs of Wikimedia Foundation go on speaking tours). It’s a community creation, entirely written and funded by people like you (Yes, you if your 15-28 years old and can fake having multiple doctorates) . More than 340 million people use Wikipedia every month – almost a third of the Internet-connected world. You are part of our community. (Not really, but hey, if it floats your boat…)

I believe in us (He means his cabal of high level editors and admins who run roughshod over everyone else. Wiki editors have famously argued with actual survivors of the USS Liberty incident in the discussion pages) . I believe that Wikipedia keeps getting better. (How is beyond me, the vandals manage to routinely double the amount of damage in an hour that we can fix) That’s the whole idea. One person (Idiot) writes something, somebody improves  it a little (argues with them), and it keeps getting better (whichever side can bring in the most high ranking admin/editors in the debate gets to keep their Point of View in. Or someone guts the whole article and makes it a useless stub), over time. If you find it useful today, imagine how much we can achieve together in 5, 10, 20 years. (Colleges and High Schools have already banned using Wikipedia as a source. Plus imagine how much better the vandals can get in 5, 10, 20 years)

Wikipedia is about the power of people like us (yes, because when I want to learn about history or WW1, I don’t want to read about it from someone whose dedicated their life to it. No, I want a novice that read a few books and watched a few movies but is dam good at gaming the system to tell me about WW1) to do extraordinary things. People (idiots) like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it. (Then fund it from your own dam pocket, your making plenty from your speaking engagements and other events. Hell for the most part you don’t even bother with Wikipedia anymore unless its a dire situation or it makes you look bad.) It’s proof of our collective potential to change the world. (Its proof of everything that’s wrong with the internet in one place.)

We need to protect the space where this important work happens. (Well you already OWN the servers according to the finances of Wikimedia Foundation. Plus with 8 Million to spare I doubt Wiki is going to go broke tomorrow) We need to protect Wikipedia. We want to keep it free of charge and free of advertising. (Haha, they just use Wikipedia to help promote Wikia now since Wikia is the for profit brand they don’t care how much advertising they plaster on that) We want to keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. (Did he just promote Vandalizing Wiki? woohoo) We want to keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone. (Unless you know, your not one of our inner cabal of high editors/admin then fuckoff. But feel free to do Recent Change Patrol!)

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization I (Ego much at all?) created in 2003 to operate, grow, nurture, and protect Wikipedia. (What does Wikimedia protect Wikipedia from?) For ten million US dollars a year (What a lie, current expenses for the whole Wikimedia Foundation are FAR LESS then 10 Million. Not only that but most of the expenses are SALARY EXPENSES. How much more money does Wikimedia need sitting in the bank?) and with a staff of fewer than 35 people (so 2.2 Million divided by 35 is 65000 a year for everyone who works there. I’m sure Wales and the other heads of Wikimedia don’t take more then their fair share in this wonderful project) , it runs the fifth most-read website in the entire world. I’m asking for your help so we can continue our work. (Didn’t AOL used to do this? They farmed out the work of controlling AOL chat rooms to “Community Volunteers” and at some point a court found it illegal?)

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. (The sum of all human knowledge? Really? Because pretend PHDs = Knowledge I guess) That’s where we’re headed. And with your help, we will get there.

Thank you for using Wikipedia. You’re part of this story: please make a donation today. (Or please Vandalize something, it would actually be more constructive then donating)

Jimmy Wales

(Co) Founder, Wikipedia

Seriously, what a jackass load of bullshit. Can anyone can take this seriously? The quotes I used are actually supplied on the Wikimedia Foundation website. I used This PDF which compared 2008 to 2009. Not surprisingly when you go to the FAQ supplied with this “plea” they only give you a link to Wikimedia’s 2007 finances. Although Jimmy doesn’t get paid from Wikimedia he does get to collect 75K in speaking fees whenever someone wants him to speak. The only reason someone would want him to speak? Wikipedia.

Oh and lets not forget that Larry Sanger co-founded wikipedia.