[Foundation-l] Donations: anonymous. vs. real name

[Brion Vibber]

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>.
> 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)

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 249 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/attachments/20051219/d59578d4/attachment-0001.pgp