Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia volunteers reject dishonest donation drive

Wikipedia, to cofounder Jimmy Wales's eternal dismay, is a nonprofit project rather than a lucrative private enterprise. The online encyclopedia, home to volunteer-written disquisitions on subjects like the umlaut in names of heavy metal bands, hopes to raise $6 million this year in a fundraising drive now featured in prominent ads on the top of most pages on the otherwise ad-free site. How's it going? More »

9:40 AM on Fri Nov 7 2008
By Owen Thomas
21,264 views, 24 comments

Most discussed colonelpanic: Studious Valleywaggers will notice this article brought out all of Rachel Marsden's Valleywag IDs, except for the obvious one. She's laying more »

commenter of the day

Troll 2.0

Will the real Jimmy Wales please stand up? Troll 2.0 nails the slippery Wikipedia cofounder:

He's not even a real person anymore. He's the "consensus" version of himself as fabricated by Wikipediots.

More »

4:40 PM on Tue Nov 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
164 views, 2 comments

the sum of all human knowledge

Wikipedia running ads

What's that on the top of every page on Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales's nonprofit encyclopedia? Why, it's an ad! Wales had long promised that Wikipedia would not carry advertising, but he makes an exception for the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's nonprofit parent. What Wales doesn't mention: Wikipedia will soon have many new ways of making money available to it, thanks to a revision in its open-source license. Wikipedia is switching from an obscure, restrictive agreement with its roots in software documentation to a much looser Creative Commons copyright license — which means the Wikimedia Foundation will be able to profit from its volunteers' editorial work. While they're at it, why don't Wales and company just run banner ads, too? The donation drive seems like an excellent opportunity to show potential advertisers how effective Wikipedia's ads can be.

2:00 PM on Tue Nov 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,419 views, 7 comments

Most discussed dogcat: I've just had a terrible thought... Perhaps Owen's scoop was just too big, and Jimbo instructed the wikipidiots to perform a more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Jimmy Wales's dishonest campaign ad

In a YouTube video, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales opines about foreign policy. We love how the video producer added in visuals for every "err." We wonder: Is Wales stumbling over his words because he doesn't really believe what he's saying? More »

10:00 AM on Tue Nov 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
489 views, 10 comments

mysteries

Why is VC Jeremy Levine lying for Jimmy Wales?

Money is a commodity. What venture capitalists really bank is their reputation. And Jeremy Levine of Bessemer Venture Partners has just signaled that he's willing to cash in his reputation to protect a piddling $4 million investment. Levine is not amused by our report of how Levine got Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales fired from his job as CEO of Wikia, calling it a lie. The report is accurate, Wikia insiders confirm; Levine's denial is the lie. The only mystery here: Why is Levine willing to dissemble for Wales? More »

11:40 AM on Mon Nov 3 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,649 views, 7 comments

Latest by dogcat: Great piece Owen. It sounds like Levine's made a big mistake: lying is so easy to do, but lying to try more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Why Jimmy Wales got booted from Wikia's top job

Why did Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, an online compendium which includes the world's most detailed article on flim-flams, step down as CEO of Wikia, the for-profit website host which recently laid off some of its employees? The way Wales likes to tell the story, years later, he realized he was a free-flying entrepreneur, not an earthbound bureaucrat. So he hired Gil Penchina, a former eBay executive, to mind the shop. That's not what really happened. Wales was fired from his job as CEO by the company's investors. More »

2:00 PM on Fri Oct 31 2008
By Owen Thomas
4,415 views, 14 comments

Most discussed porterhouse125: This man is legend. He helped found the single most useful site on the Internet. And as a more »

the sum of all human knowledge

New York gossip bitches about Jimmy Wales

Cindy Adams, the endearingly batty New York Post gossipeuse, is mad at Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia. Her beef: She complained about her Wikipedia entry to him two months ago, and he has done nothing. She's so mad, she has found words that rhyme with wiki, like "sticky" and "icky." She has also done investigative reporting about Barack Obama's Wikipedia entry, discovering it that it is now "14 pages long." We think that means she had one of her assistants print it out. Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. That is not how you get your Wikipedia entry edited. More »

3:20 PM on Wed Oct 22 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,429 views, 14 comments

Most discussed Rachel Marsden: Who does she think she is? I wasn't even able to fuck my way to a decent bio on Wikipedia. more »

layoffs

Wikia lays off 10 percent of staff

Bid goodnight to Jimmy Wales's dream of cashing out on Wikipedia, the world's largest collection of infrequently asked questions. The vehicle for his scheme, a derivative for-profit startup called Wikia, is imploding. A tipster tells us that the 43-person company has laid off 30 percent of its staff. (Update: The company now says it has only laid off 10 percent of its employees.) Wikia lets users build their own anyone-can-edit wiki pages. Unlike Wikipedia, Wikia sometimes runs advertising on the wikis; its most popular sites have to do with videogames. So why the layoffs? More »

10:00 AM on Mon Oct 20 2008
By Owen Thomas
4,926 views, 25 comments

Most discussed OletheaCadosneep: Didn't Wikia spin up just 2 or so years ago, not 1999....? more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Jimmy Wales gets a German prize

On Friday, the cofounder of the world's most comprehensive directory of socialites, Jimmy Wales, was one of the recipients of the $138,000 Quadriga prize for philanthropy in Berlin. Wales is a committed follower of Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism and noted loather of altruism — but he got handsomely paid for his do-gooding, so it must be okay! And that's not the only way Wales was rewarded in Berlin. More »

10:00 AM on Sat Oct 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,681 views, 20 comments

Most discussed Rachel Marsden: @godospoons - The "racy pictures" are of Weckerle kissing some other chick full-on. They've made the rounds, and Weckerle is more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Senators' Wikipedia pages routinely vandalized

The Wikipedia entries of U.S. senators, after having false information or gibberish edited into them by users, typically remained uncorrected for a full 24 hours, according to a study. An assertion that Senator John McCain was born "in Florida in the then American-controlled Panama Canal Zone" was viewed by 93,000 people before it was removed. The study seems to contradict Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales's claim that volunteer editors swiftly fix important pages. [The Wikipedia Review]

2:40 PM on Thu Oct 2 2008
By Owen Thomas
355 views, 4 comments

Most discussed macbeach: Maybe they don't consider pages on Republicans "important". There is always a way to resolve these ethical dilemmas. more »

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