kmf164 wrote:
Is there a way to make a donation, under my Wikipedia user name? Using Paypal, it only gives the option of making an anonymous donation or using my real name. I would like to make a donation, but definitely not under my real name. I rather make an anonymous donation then nothing. But, would greatly prefer to attribute my donation to my wikipedia name, Kmf164http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kmf164. Is it feasible to add this third option for donations through Paypal?
There is a comment field, which is public; they're listed at the daily fundraising progress reports at http://fundraising.wikimedia.org/2005q4/
If you like you could put your username in there and mark it as anonymous to hide your real name from the public lists.
Aside from my personal preference, I think donations to Wikimedia would increase if they were noted somewhere, along with users' edit histories and contributions. Wikipedia, (as with open source software, in general), is based on a "gift economy" (in both time and treasure). People give of their time and knowledge; in exchange they get credit in their edit history and elsewhere associated with their username. Monetary contributions are yet another way for people to support the project, who might not have as much time to contribute.
I think it is important for Wikipedia to also tie financial donations to usernames, so that Wikipedians are recognized for those contributions, as well as those of time and knowledge.
On the other hand we really don't want to have people going around saying "I donated a bajillion dollars, therefore my version of this article should be kept instead of yours". :)
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)