[Foundation-l] new site notice now ready

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

First of all, I want to say that I agree with most everything Erik has  
written so far, and can't really add to his eloquent explanations. Nevertheless,  
as someone who was involved from the beginning in these discussions, I want to  
raise a few points here. 
 
1. The Wikimedia Foundation has grown beyond anyone's wildest  expectations 
in terms of traffic, hits, articles, and projects. We are a top ten  website.
2. We are doing this on a shoestring budget, with minimal staff and minimal  
expenses. 
3. We are able to do this because of dedicated volunteers, like everyone  
writing on this list.
 
But --
 
4. The Foundation, which hosts all these projects does not want to be  
gobbled up by some big corporation, like Youtube was, like Myspace was, or like  any 
other successful website was. We want to maintain our independence.
5. Independence comes at a cost. We have to buy servers, and we have to  find 
the right people to manage all of the other things involved with running a  
huge foundation. 
6. Considering our growth, the base of volunteers does not scale. All the  
good will in the world does not mean that people can take off exams or their  
jobs or their families to work 24/7 to keep this thing running.
7. We are already paying a steep cost. While it doesn't appear in the  audit, 
the fact that we do not have advertising is costing us. This is  unrealized 
income at a minimum of $60k a day and probably much more. In other  words it is 
many millions a year. Yet, the Board and the community have chosen  to avoid 
ads so that we can maintain our independence.
 
So where do we get the money to keep this thing afloat?
 
8. Donations from devoted users. We are grateful for each and every  
donation, and each and every donation is valuable, whether it is $1 or $100. 
9. Unfortunately, however, given our size, this is not enough. Read the  
financial statements, follow the projections about growth. Compare our budget to  
the budgets of other comparably-sized websites, or even to websites smaller 
than  us.
 
Fortunately--
 
10. There are people out there who want to help us. Some have selfish  
motives, no doubt, and others have purely altruistic motives. Deal with it. Such  is 
life.
11. When the selfish overwhelms the altruistic, we can say no. The  Board has 
said no--to some very big potential sponsors. 
12. When people do help us on our terms, it is only right that we  express 
our gratitude to them. We thank them. The site notice is a means of  thanking 
them.
13. From this perspective, this whole debate is about what is "too much  
gratitude." That is, in my opinion, unfortunate.
 
A final statement--
 
14. To the editors and other contributors--Wikipedia and all the other  
projects do NOT exist so that a bunch of bored people have some place to play in  
their leisure time. They exist to spread free knowledge and free culture. Our  
target audience is not the editor per se, but the user-without-a-user-name who 
 comes to rely on our projects for information, whether its a student, a  
traveller, or someone with an obscure interest and a passion for learning. As  
editors and contributors we are serving them, and not being served. That is why  
we keep all the sites going, no matter how costly it is. And let's be 
grateful  to the groups and organizations that help us meet these costs.
 
Danny