[Wikimedia-l] TVTropes deletes all pages with "Rape" in title under advertising pressure.

[Theo10011]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was actually thinking of the board, or just Jimbo himself, rather than
> any wider group of luminaries (or actual Wikipedia editors). If Google
> wanted something, I am sure they would speak in person to the people they
> have had personal contact with. I was struck by the following four-month
> timeline the other day:
>
> ---o0o---
>
> October 4 to October 6, 2011: Italian Wikipedia blackout, hailed as
> successful in preventing Italian legislation.
>
> November 18, 2011: Media announce that Google's Sergey Brin is donating
> half a million dollars to Wikipedia.
>
> December 10, 2011: Jimmy first raises the topic of an anti-SOPA Wikipedia
> blackout on Wikipedia.
>
> January 16, 2012: English Wikipedia is blacked out for a day, in an action
> hailed as successful in preventing US legislation.
>

So, a chain of events during a 4 month period can not be incidental. What
you neglect to mention that there was an annual fundraiser during the end
of the year, this was not the first grant Google made to Wikimedia, in
fact, it might not even be the second, they donated in the past fundraisers
as well, larger amounts I believe. I am thinking of the 2
Million received from Google in 2010.

Now, far be it for me to defend Jimmy, but the central assumption in your
polemic is, that jimmy is devoid of caring about any social issues, issues
that might even affect the identity he has created. He would have to be
paid in order to care, if not Google than someone else paying him off to
care, can't it just be that he believes in something? even if there is
a perceived threat? I know it might be hard to believe, but people have
been known to care about legislation and larger social issues from time to
time, and use the platform they have.

Your timeline seems clouded with conspiracy theories. Maybe geni is right,
and you have been hanging around the critics forum too much. I fail to see
the mass conspiracy being alluded to here.

As far as funding goes, I have been around WMF funding discussion more than
a lot of people. The last fundraiser was close to 30 Million USD, majority
of which was accumulated through small donations. Large grants aren't
something that's all that new, WMF has been receiving them for a few years
now, 2012, wasn't particularly that eventful in terms of large grants [1].
I fail to see your point about the "luminaries" being bought off. As a
non-profit, they have to legally declare large grants and mention the
sources of their revenue. I absolutely fail to understand why Jimmy or
anyone would jeopardize their standing now, raising money for an
organization that really has no trouble raising it at this point.

Regards
Theo


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