AfterDawn: News

Wikipedia raises $16 million, stays ad-free

The Wikimedia Foundation, parent of online encyclopedia Wikipedia has said this weekend that they have raised $16 million, allowing the service to remain ad-free for another year.

Founder Jimmy Wales said the fundraiser was the "shortest" in the company's history, lasting just over 50 days.



Over 500,000 individuals made donations, doubling on 2009's count.

Donors from 140 countries donated an average of $22, and $13.7 million of the donations came via the Internet. The rest came from direct checks.

All the money will go to paying off Wikipedia's ever-increasing infrastructure costs, staffing, program support and grants.

Concluded Wales (via PCM):

This outpouring of support by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life is a testament to the spirit of the Wikimedia movement. Wikipedia is a public resource created and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, relied on by over 400 million people and paid for by half a million donors. It's truly user-created, supported and maintained.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 3 Jan 2011 0:48

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• 11 comments

• ROMaster2

  Stay strong Wiki, stay strong.

  3.1.2011 01:05 #1

• me (unverified)

  "The Wikipedia Foundation" parent of....--should be wikimedia foundation
  
  http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home

  3.1.2011 06:11 #2

• xboxdvl2

  if only wikipedia was a reliable source of information.
  

  PS2 with 12 games.
  pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

  3.1.2011 08:57 #3

• bam431

  Nice to see my ten bucks made a difference.
  

  http://www.pirateparty.ca/
  Xbox Live: Rogue Jello - PSN: bam431 - IGN: bam431
  Youtube: electrowaffle - Twitter: bam431
  i5 760, P7P55D-E, Vapor-X HD5770, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD,

  3.1.2011 10:34 #4

• toked

  Originally posted by xboxdvl2: if only wikipedia was a reliable source of information. It's a pretty damn good source, though. If anything it's a great source for references, and then you can site the references instead of wikipedia.
  
  

  3.1.2011 12:51 #5

• KSib

  Originally posted by toked: Originally posted by xboxdvl2: if only wikipedia was a reliable source of information. It's a pretty damn good source, though. If anything it's a great source for references, and then you can site the references instead of wikipedia.
  This right here is how you do it.

  3.1.2011 16:48 #6

• Azuran

  Originally posted by toked: Originally posted by xboxdvl2: if only wikipedia was a reliable source of information. It's a pretty damn good source, though. If anything it's a great source for references, and then you can site the references instead of wikipedia.
  Passed many a papers doing exactly this. It's stupid that college professors ban wikipedia.
  

  3.1.2011 18:10 #7

• xnonsuchx

  Originally posted by Azuran: It's stupid that college professors ban wikipedia. Because Wikipedia is only as good as it's best contributor on any given subject. That might be fine for some subjects, but hardly good for many others.

  4.1.2011 23:37 #8

• Azuran

  I wouldn't use it to write a thesis or dissertation, but a crap GE course no gives a crap about?
  

  5.1.2011 16:32 #9

• Gorgoroth

  F#$k Wikipedia... I heard about a guy in Savannah that chronicled my entire career running the world's oldest and longest running internet based music magazine. It was on Wikipedia for about half a year to a year or so, and then the bastards took it down, citing "no relevancy" or some such bull. One of them even said there were no links, when I remembered seeing links on there to WREKage, the radio station I guest hosted at, and some other links to review sites or something... Whoever this guy was I would LOVE to thank him personally (and also wondering if I have some kinda stalker out there!) Anyway, if you wanna see what the wikipedia entry USED to look like, it's here:
  
  http://wikibin.org/articles/vibrations-of-doom.html
  
  I need to get in touch with them (hadn't thought about it until today) and figure out why they think there's no relevancy here... EVERY single available issue is up and on the site from 1992 till the present (I just released issue #50 on Christmas day 2010!)
  
  Anyway, I'll jump off the soapbox now... I guess they're good for what they do, but I have ALSO heard that they are VERY elitist and have that god complex... You know, the kind of snobbery usually found in World Of Warcraft players...
  

  Vibrations of Doom Magazine
  The world's oldest and longest running online music magazine.
  http://vibrationsofdoom.com

  7.1.2011 18:25 #10

• Azuran

  Quote:Anyway, I'll jump off the soapbox now... I guess they're good for what they do, but I have ALSO heard that they are VERY elitist and have that god complex... You know, the kind of snobbery usually found in World Of Warcraft players... Yeah thats very true.
  

  7.1.2011 21:14 #11