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> Wikia leasing office space to WMF, Greg Kohs wants answers
LaraLove
post Mon 26th January 2009, 3:17pm
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http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/01/21/a-not...ity-initiative/

In the latest Wikimedia blog post, Naoko Komura states that "Daniel [Phelps] collected a dozen bids for the
space in [South of Market area of San Francisco], and Wikia matched the best offer." Gregory Kohs takes "best offer" to mean "lowest offer" and asks for some answers.

Erik Moller says, among other things, "We've suggested to Wikia a fair market rate based on the average of the other options we obtained; After some negotiation, Wikia accepted." This prompts David Levy to ask, "To clarify, did Wikia match the lowest bid?" Erik says no. They used "averaging" to determine a number based on the cost and advantages of other spaces. And not only did the WMF not match the lowest bid, but they're actually a little higher than a comparable space.

Then Thomas Dalton starts asking questions, believing this does not look good for a non-profit and that it isn't something that would fly under UK law. Komura responds, saying "W[ikia's] asking price was more than X [the "best offer"], but we said our offer price would not be more than the price quoted by X. So, W evaluated if they can rent out space higher than our offer price. As there was no higher bidder than us, W had agreed to offer the space at our offer price."

So Erik says Wikia's offer was more than the comparable space, which is assumed to be "X", which contradicted the blog post by Komura, who then responds again stating that it was a match in price. David noticed this as well and again asked for clarification.

And then it degrades into name-calling and other middle school-like crap typical of the project.

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/found...ary/049340.html
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Kelly Martin
post Mon 26th January 2009, 3:21pm
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Yup, that sounds very much like the sort of self-dealing that is flatly prohibited in the non-profit arena. Did Mike Godwin get his law degree out of a Crackerjack box?
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Kato
post Mon 26th January 2009, 3:28pm
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I've updated the list:

50 Ways that connect Wikia and the WMF
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Cedric
post Mon 26th January 2009, 3:44pm
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QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Mon 26th January 2009, 9:21am) *

Yup, that sounds very much like the sort of self-dealing that is flatly prohibited in the non-profit arena. Did Mike Godwin get his law degree out of a Crackerjack box?

That question had occurred to me as well. More than once.
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LaraLove
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:06pm
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Couple updates, as I read further through:

Sue Gardner says it was her decision.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/found...ary/049393.html

And Gerard calls Kohs a troll. Shocker.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/found...ary/049450.html
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dogbiscuit
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:13pm
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Could you run through Verifiability not Truth once more?
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From the blog:

QUOTE
administrative resource such as HR and Finance are shared


Then there is this wonderful bit of IT logic:

QUOTE
On the tech collaboration front, we are not treating Wikia’s development work as the solution. Their work is one of the modified MediaWiki we are evaluating along with what’s out there such as deki, uniwiki and numerous extensions developed by MediaWiki developers. The project team will produce its own code, but if the solution is out there already, why not collaborate, incorporate, and make it available for existing and next users of MediaWiki? Isn’t that an open source project all about?

Everyone knows that if you embed one supplier in your company, you will not be evaluating the different solutions neutrally. tearinghairout.gif thumbsdown.gif
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Jon Awbrey
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:22pm
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QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Mon 26th January 2009, 10:21am) *

Did Mike Godwin get his law degree out of a Crackerjack box?


Jimbo crack porn.

Godwin jes pour on th corn syrup.

Ja³
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Doc glasgow
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:38pm
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And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.
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dogbiscuit
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:55pm
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Could you run through Verifiability not Truth once more?
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QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 4:38pm) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.

You are Greg Kohs and I claim my £10.

Oh, BTW Hi other Greg. Nice to see you lurking. wave.gif
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Random832
post Mon 26th January 2009, 4:59pm
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QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 4:38pm) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.


Feel free to create Template:Nn-wikipediareview
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Doc glasgow
post Mon 26th January 2009, 5:02pm
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QUOTE(Random832 @ Mon 26th January 2009, 4:59pm) *

QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 4:38pm) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.


Feel free to create Template:Nn-wikipediareview


Ha.

I think that would constitute a WP:POINT
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cyofee
post Mon 26th January 2009, 5:05pm
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Someone with a bot should quickly convert all those Google-juicy Wikia links to regular links.

Anyone wanna bet about how much Wikia's Alexa ranking drops in the next month?
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Random832
post Mon 26th January 2009, 5:13pm
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QUOTE(cyofee @ Mon 26th January 2009, 5:05pm) *

Someone with a bot should quickly convert all those Google-juicy Wikia links to regular links.


How about voting for / commenting on https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15801 ?
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Krimpet
post Mon 26th January 2009, 5:32pm
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QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 11:38am) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.

There's actually a lot of links to questionable commercial sites in project space, not just limited to Wikia - "WikiProject Pornography" (which makes me want to shower after clicking) is particularly stuffed with them.

This post has been edited by Krimpet: Mon 26th January 2009, 5:33pm
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victim of censorship
post Mon 26th January 2009, 9:35pm
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QUOTE(Krimpet @ Mon 26th January 2009, 5:32pm) *

QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 11:38am) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.

There's actually a lot of links to questionable commercial sites in project space, not just limited to Wikia - "WikiProject Pornography" (which makes me want to shower after clicking) is particularly stuffed with them.


More reason to shut down Wikipedia, sell the domain name and servers.
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Eva Destruction
post Mon 26th January 2009, 9:40pm
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QUOTE(Krimpet @ Mon 26th January 2009, 5:32pm) *

QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Mon 26th January 2009, 11:38am) *

And I'm wondering why wikipedia is promoting wikia over any other comparable service provider.

There's actually a lot of links to questionable commercial sites in project space, not just limited to Wikia - "WikiProject Pornography" (which makes me want to shower after clicking) is particularly stuffed with them.


Good to see the University of Chicago performing such a valuable service to the community.
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EricBarbour
post Mon 26th January 2009, 9:54pm
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Well, the flagged revs bit made the front page of Slashdot. (yesterday)

Perhaps someone would like to tell the Slashdotters about this leasing business?

I still think flagged revs will be subverted and ultimately abandoned by the en-wiki.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Mon 26th January 2009, 10:04pm
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Sylar
post Mon 26th January 2009, 11:51pm
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It's because Jimbo seduced Angela.
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Sylar
post Tue 27th January 2009, 12:08am
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QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Mon 26th January 2009, 3:21pm) *

Yup, that sounds very much like the sort of self-dealing that is flatly prohibited in the non-profit arena. Did Mike Godwin get his law degree out of a Crackerjack box?


I know Mike Godwin personally, and he is a jackassed idiot.

This post has been edited by Sylar: Tue 27th January 2009, 12:08am
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EricBarbour
post Tue 27th January 2009, 1:15am
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QUOTE(Sylar @ Mon 26th January 2009, 4:08pm) *
I know Mike Godwin personally, and he is a jackassed idiot.

Obviously... but is he a decent lawyer?
Hah. Ha ha ha.

This is a great day to revisit Godwin's Greatest Hits.

Anyone remember all the suck-up he got from the "digerati" back in the 1990s,
when he worked for the EFF and wrote pontifications like this?

Jimbo probably likes Mikey, because he's an aggressive self-promoter
with "reality-based issues". Just like Jimbo.
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