Brion,
Thanks. The comment field would work. I realize that any changes or new
ideas for the donation system wouldn't make it into this fundraising
campaign, anyway.
As for "people going around saying "I donated a bajillion dollars, therefore
my version of this article should be kept instead of yours". - you're right
and no way should anyone ever equate monetary donations with added
credentials for editing (these need to be earned through contributions of
time and knowledge). But, it would be nice in my opinion, to nonetheless
make note of donations by users. I think doing so would play into the idea
of the "gift economy" and help Wikimedia.
-Kmf164
On 12/19/05, Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com> wrote:
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,
Kmf164<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kmf164>64>.
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)
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