[Foundation-l] new site notice now ready

[The Cunctator]

On 12/30/06, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> When we were in the porno business we would have the best articles
> explaining what porno is. It would not be 1.500.000 articles in English,
> we would not have 312.579 articles with lexical information as on the
> English language Wiktionary, we might have 1.056.887 media files but
> really. I am also certain that we would not have you interested in such
> a resource then again what do I know?

Of course I would be. The internet is for porn, after all.

> Please use reasonable arguments.

Your failure to understand the scintillating precision of my arguments
is not an indication of any lack of reason on my part.

>
> The Cunctator schreef:
> > On 12/28/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
> >
> >> 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.
> >>
> >
> > You have a strange definition of cost. Wikipedia is missing out on
> > tons of money by not being in the porno business. You don't get to
> > write that up as a cost.
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