One of my favorite internet utilities, wikipedia, is begging for money. I am normally the sort of person that would succumb to these kinds of pleas: I’m a lifetime member of Minnesota Public radio, I’m a lifetime member of my university’s alumni association. I believe in supporting non-profit organizations from which I derive direct benefit. And it is absolutely incontrovertible that I derive mountains of benefit from the vast wikithing. But… I doubt I’ll give any money to wikipedia. Why?
Two words: Jimmy Wales. Rather than being a large, professional organization asking for financial support, the tone of the campaign comes across as a Jimmy-Wales-branded, typically megalomaniacal, whining-for-dollars. Wikiwails. I don’t want to give that narcissistic asshole a single devalued KRW, despite the fact that I love the product he helped to innovate. Even the mere fact that the management of wikipedia somehow thought that the idea of branding the plea-for-funds with Mr Wales’ face was a good one is itself an overt sign of the degree to which the man’s weird personality seems dysfunctionally to dominate the organization. If his name and face weren’t attached to the organization, I would donate. I promise.
As things stand, I’ve even reduced my daily visit quotient to well under my normal 30 articles average – because I get tired of looking at his self-satisfied, overly-earnest face.
