[Foundation-l] Fundraising banner ad

[Delirium]

Erik Moeller wrote:
> On 10/23/07, Matthew Britton <matthew.britton at 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