Erik Moeller wrote:
On 10/23/07, Matthew Britton
<matthew.britton(a)btinternet.com> wrote:
Also, what is silly about threatening a fork? Is
that not
one of the key arguments (in theory at least) for free
content, and thus the whole point of the Wikimedia
projects' existence? Or does the Foundation no longer care
about that either?
I understand your frustration, but it is misplaced. This is not about
"the Foundation vs. the community", it is about a community trying to
find the best ways to sustain itself.
I've been here for nearly 5 years and *I'm* not even sold on that, so I
could see why not everyone else is either. The servers at
*.wikipedia.org are not going to shut down if the fundraiser comes short
of funds, so "sustain itself" is not quite the right word. Furthermore,
if we were anywhere near having to shut down due to lack of funds to pay
bandwidth bills, there are plenty of folks standing by ready to make
major in-kind donations; Jimmy himself mentioned on this mailing list
that he's had conversations with Google where they've told him they're
ready to offer anytime we feel like asking.
So it sounds like the money is needed for something else besides simply
sustaining the site, yet this has never really been "sold" to the
community in a way that most of us are on board with.
-Mark