On 9/2/05, Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com wrote:
On 02/09/05, Fredrik Johansson fredrik.johansson@gmail.com wrote:
On 9/2/05, Michael Turley michael.turley@gmail.com wrote:
In light of the Katrina disaster and the competing appeals for aid for
the
victims there, should we consider suspending the Wikimedia Foundation funding drive for a time?
Or do we consider the two causes different enough that it should
continue as
scheduled?
We're doing our part by providing accessible, neutral, and up-to-date information about the disaster. The extra traffic costs money...
I've not seen any complaints about the fund drive - but would you believe someone complained about having the Hurricane Katrina article linked from /In The News/ on the front page? The mind, she boggles.
For what it's worth, income over the past few days to the fund drive has been roughly constant. I'd say that indicates it isn't in direct competition in any way; were we holding a drive for $random_charity, then perhaps.
OK. I see our value here as pointed out by Fredrik Johansson.
I don't normally see the news, instead preferring to read online and listen to NPR. Last night and this morning were the first time I'd seen video footage and photographs of the aftermath, and although I realized how big the disaster was, I guess today is when the emotional impact struck me.
I hope no one thinks I was suggesting that we're wrong to continue the scheduled drive. I was listening to a report of the lack of effective relief efforts while reading Wikipedia's article on Katrina, and noticed our appeal at the top of the page and I suddenly felt very small. On reflection, even the goal for our drive is very small as well.