So, they've decided that they need more hardsell because the fundraising drive is behind schedule.

Here is their first pitch :

The Wikipedia Challenge : how Wikipedia helps save dying languages.

That's kind of like saying how Coca Cola is the most important part of a balanced diet....

SOS Children's Village - or get 'em while they're young.

Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as feminine auto-fellatio ...


The ideal Wikipedian

I'll let the opening paragraph speak for itself :



Could they be refering to....Durova???

¤ Better Living Through Cumistry ¤

Jonny

Maybe they mean Taxwoman? She's well respected in the BDSM community apparently!

Wikipedia, like the internet itself, and especially Web 2.0 sites, are major forces in the the hegemony of English over other languages. Establishing a few low traffic wikis with indigenous language content does not counter this trend in any meaningful way. They also exerts an influence in the imposition of American consumer and pop-culture onto all the people peoples of the world. So these desperate claims that WP is a respecter and protector of other languages and cultures is absurd.

Finally, WP does not function with the context of the established network of the non-profits, NGOs and foundations that provide serious assistance to the developing world. This is partly a result of the "Cult of Amateur" winging everything as they go along and part the result of geeks over estimating the value of their toy to the rest of the world. Just compare the serious work that the Gates Foundation does in Africa with this non-sense. In the end this over blown self importance will come back to bite their fundraising efforts in the ass big time.

I like how they put a link to "Why Wikipedia Does Not Run Ads" right under the ad asking for donations.

If Wikipedia ran ads and pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars from ad revenue, they would be a ripe target for libel suits from all of those disgruntled people with false and defamatory biographies.

But it's pointless to sue a pauper, so the pauper can say mean and nasty things and get his jollies that way.

What any of that has to do with being an encyclopedia escapes me.

The Code of the wikipedian.....


== How be a good wikipeida admin. ==
In more general terms, one can also enjoy the pain of others by:

* [[WP:TROLL]]Baiting and using intensifiers in commentary (such words as ''terrible, dumb, stupid, bad, good,'' and so forth, and exclamation marks).
* [[WP:IGNORE|Wack the hammer down and pwn someone]].

* [[WP:DICK]] Striving to a dickhead.

* [[WP:SOCK]] Accepting that any one not a Jenuine JIMBO JUICE JERK is a SOCK and must be bitten hard and have his/her account "scarlet lettered" with "S" for sock.

* [[WP:CONSENSUS]] Acknowledging one principles, its our way or no way. You disagree, then your a toll, and you are banned. we don't tolerated opinions contrary to our own.

* [[Wikipedia:Resolving disputes]] Wikipedian Admisn are always RIGHT, And any one that disagrees with the high wiki is Wrong. Your guilty and Poof or agument is unnecessary, we rely our are wiki trained and "exceptionally well-honed linguistic analytic skills (sv)", (see Nietsch, Kafka, orwell, and Joesph Hailer for inpirations for dealing with wikicable in wikicombat) and our agenda. or simply, EDITOR wrong, WIKIADMIN right. and YOUR banned for asking (TROLLING).

* [[Ethic of reciprocity]] FUCK'em before before they can have a say.

* [[Active listening]] Listening takes time from caring for my new vandal fighting bot coding.

* [[Wikipedia:WikiLawyering]] LAW, WE DON"T NEED LAW and STINKING LAWYERS We are the LAW.

* [[Assume Good Faith]] Ban early, as a first resort. Ban all and ban as many as you can. Consider a user to the object of some wikipwnage using [[WP:DICK]] and [[WP:IGNORE |ALL RULEZ]].

Try to use standard welcome/warning messages to welcome new editors like... TROLLER, IDOIT, YOU MUST BE A SOCK CUZ YOUR OPINION IS NOT LIKE MINE. AND YOU MUST BE SOCK OF <ENTER NAME OF ALL PURPOSE SOCK> or if you can't think of a reason to ban an editor to smart or argument to strong, then invoke the the ole wiki favorite...YOUR A SOCK <ENTER NAME OF ALL PURPOSE SOCK> AND YOUR BANNED SUCKER!!!

Consciously choose your agenda POV, strive to be a true cultist of the Wiki by fostering hate, anger, of those who don't believe in our GOD, JIMBO, and the Holy Wiki. Devote much time and resources, as to be all consuming in your life as an wikiadmin, devoted to the task of building mound of BULLSHIT so FOUL and So high, that it should stink to high heaven and poison the blue water internet.

Y'know, I used to be one of those who joined in bashing US culture and the US education system.

And then came JzG …

And if I haven't learned anything else from the Wikiputia experience, I have learned that other countries and other cultures can turn out products equally abysmal to our own.

When you stop to think about, a lesson like that really does contribute to global understanding.

Jonny

One has to admire the profound depth of Betazoid Empathy required to appreciate mutually reciprocal frustration, cynicism, and bitterness.

Trouble is, humans never, ever listen to βzoids.

Jonny

Here's something interesting. When a comment that asked why the Foundation was allocating over $500,000 to Sue Gardner and her to-be-named staff, the comment was posted for about 20 minutes, then it mysteriously disappeared.

I guess they're only going to allow fawning and glowing commentary on their blog. Seems to fit the Wikipedia M.O.

They disgust me more and more, every day.

Greg

They're already a ripe target for libel suits, as losing one would require them to either pay up or sell the domain name, which in itself is probably worth billions.

OMG Wikipedia is gone! I'll flunk my exams!



Are you fucking kidding me? Librarians and professors hate you because you disseminate ignorance, factually incorrect information, slander, nationalist POV and blatant lies and call it an 'encyclopedia'. Each and everyone one of those people that claims "Wikipedia got me through college" should have their qualifications taken away from them, on the basis that relying on a social networking site for your research is a ridiculously stupid thing to do. Why is Wikipedia advertising the fact that people are retarded enough to rely on it? If they were responsible and ethical, they would be taking every effort to ensure that people did not trust them. Ugh. Sickening.



As one of these poor students of which they speak, I'd much rather spend the little money I have spare on a real cause, like, you know, a project who's mission wasn't to spread low quality rubbish to people who can't afford anything better. That $60 (~£30) could buy a few textbooks written by actual experts who know what they're talking about and aren't out to push some kind of nationalist agenda.

Well, they're going to have to rethink their tactics, because this little post is getting swallowed by quite a few negative comments from students (most of whom say the same thing you do) and college professors.

Can't these people do anything right?

Start a fork and make millions off Google ads, of course.

I guess that shows that the only way to really stop Wikipedia is to create something better which is still free and just as easy to find.

A new post : Turning the Digital Divide into Digital Dividends
by Wayne Mackintosh



Okay, so this is the giving the poor children in Africa the education they need pitch. We've heard this before. What interests me here is the Commonwealth nations Agency involvement. Granted, this is a very small organization, but it is government-funded by the Commonwealth states. What's his angle here? Where is this collaboration really taking everybody?

There's Trouble In Ripoff City —

{{↓Plot Spoiler↓}}

I knew I'd seen this pitch somewhere before …
Watch Out, Iowa!

Jonny