[Wikipedia-l] possible explanation for Spanish 'pedia fork; plus some thoughts...

[Daniel Mayer]

Here is a possible explanation (found at
http://enciclopedia.us.es/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia).

Esta enciclopedia surgió como una escisión de la
versión en castellano de la wikipedia tras un anuncio
sobre la posibilidad de que hubiese publicidad en la
versión original.

Translation: This encyclopedia split off from the
Castilian version of wikipedia after an announcement
of the possibility that there would be advertising in
the original version.

Sigh…

We should consider doing some strategizing to make
sure another fork doesn’t happen (I hear members of
the French wikipedia threatened a fork in the past).
Specifically, we might want to revisit the idea of
wikipedia becoming a non-profit (preferably a European
one). That way, anti-Americanism and distrust of
Boomis (which is both an American company and, /gasp/,
for-profit) wouldn’t weigh on anybody’s mind. 

I for one completely trust Jimbo and his company to
continue doing only good for Wikipedia – but others
are instinctively distrustful of both Americans and
for-profit companies and will over-react when certain
capitalistic ideas are put forward or American
influence is perceived to be expanding. I wouldn’t
mind at all contributing 10 Euros/dollars a month to
keep Wikipedia (all languages) afloat (esp. if my
donation were tax deductible). Oh and there would be
no reason why a non-profit Wikipedia.org couldn’t have
a corporate sponsor. ;-)

--maveric149 


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