[Foundation-l] Resolution:Developing Scenarios for future of fundraising

[Pronoein]

Le 18/01/2012 10:14, Alec Meta a écrit :
>> Why does the Board of Trustees think that WMF should raise the «maximum
>> possible amount of money»?
>> Why not ask for what is needed and nothing more?
> Because we don't expect to be JUST Wikipedia forever.   We have a lot
> of innovation ahead of us.  If we stand still, we'll be overtaken.
>
> With more funding, we can responsibly begin to expand beyond the
> confines of Wikipedia-as-we-currently-know-it.
>
> If we collected only what we need to stay afloat, then all we'll do is
> stay afloat.    I hope in future we'll expand and see a corresponding
> increase in donations.
I understand your ends but I think you're naive about the means.
I'm in favor of innovation and growing, but not in favor of doing it
through more money.
The succes of Wikipedia is due to the volunteer drive it raised.
There is a huge difference between doing things for money and through
money, and doing them for a cause and through a cause.
Besides, WMF should not be the motor or have the direction; the more you
allow them to have power, the more the community will lose the projec
and the more the projects will lose their community.
Money buys allegiance, don't you know that? Once you start receiving
money, you don't want to step down: you simply shift your priorities.
Money attracts parasites and liars, power hungry and unscrupulous people.

Don't raise more money, raise awareness and ethical reflexion about the
/cause/, and give the hundred of thousands of volunteers - which
Wikipedia once had - something to cooperate about!

Has WMF become a money-making machine ? I don't understand how someone
paid more than 150 000 dollars a year can be at the service of the same
cause than all the people who did it for free. Where is the non-profit
part in "*Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.* is an American non-profit
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization> charitable
organization
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_%28non-profit%29>"? [1] (this
is a moral discussion, I don't care about the legal definitions).

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation