[Wikipedia-l] Re: the recurring Amazon question

[Jimmy Wales]

Karl Eichwalder wrote:
> Lance Murdoch <wikipedia-l at lancemurdoch.org> writes:
> > Not much of an intrusion, and it would bring in some bucks for Jimbo the
> > capitalist who runs Wikipedia.
> 
> And what will be the next proposal?  Removing the other external
> booksellers because they don't bring in money?

There's no risk of that happening.  First, I would oppose it
strenuously, and second, I can't imagine the community supporting such
a notion.

Here's what I propose.  I'll sign us up now for an Amazon partner
account, and others that I can find for the sites we list there.
We'll make no changes to the book links page from the way it is now,
except that we'll add the codes and some text properly explaining
what's going on (though there's no material change for end users).

We'll track it for one week, to see how it goes.

At the end of that week, we'll evaluate, including a community vote as
to whether to include it or not.

If it was *just me*, I would do what we have always done, which is not
worry about it.  But I feel very strongly that I have a fiduciary and
moral responsibility to our donors (who aren't just me anymore) to
make sound financial decisions, so as to maximize the impact of the
money that has been given to us.  It doesn't seem sensible to make
this decision, therefore, without some solid indication of what the
dollar consequences actually are.

--Jimbo