User:Ched/sandbox2

I decided some historical research was in order prior to my responding here. The most relevent reading I found was at: The founding of the WMF. In short, after Bomis was founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell and Michael Davis, the company developed a free-content online-encyclopedia project called Nupedia in 2000. In January of 2001 Nupedia developed Wikipedia as a feature of Nupedia. By September, with Jimbo as CEO of Bomis, and founder/co-founder of Wikipedia, Wikipedia as an "anyone can edit" feature of Nupedia (which was peer review based). began developing articles faster.
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomis#Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomis&oldid=918445995#Background
 * Fun Fact: Jimbo was already independently wealthy from work in the market trading industry (esp futures)


 * In June 2003 Wikipedia was transferred to a nascent non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation,


 * 2003 Wales and Bomis funded a move for Wikipedia to an NPO. "The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees was initially composed of Bomis' three founders: Jimmy Wales and his two business partners, Michael Davis and Tim Shell. Shell and Davis were appointed to the board by Wales."  By the end of 2003 both the WMF and the en-wp Arbitration Committee were being developed.

January 16, 2004 Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee&oldid=2173225 end of first day of editing
 * user:UninvitedCompany and user:MartinHarper


 * (en to begin with)

free-content online-encyclopedia project
 * Jimmy Wales appointed: Tim Shell and Michael Davis to a Board


 * Previous discussion with Jimbo: User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 235

WMF question
Hi Jimbo - hope you and yours are well. I have a question regarding a current [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Office_actions/Community_consultation_on_partial_and_temporary_office_actions/09_2019#How_should_partial_and_temporary_Foundation_bans_be_used_(if_at_all)?_On_all_projects,_or_only_on_a_subset? RfC on Meta] As founder/co-founder (I'm not debating either side here), I'd like your thoughts as you were developing the WMF and Arbcom pretty much at the same time (as best as I can assertain). Did you (or do you) intend for the WMF to be an administrative entity in the day to day operations of English Wikipedia? I've always thought that Arbcom was intended to be the group of folks who would decide behavior issues and various other user problems, and the community to decide content issues if possible ON WIKI. I thought the WMF was primarily to oversee the business/money/assests end of things, and only step in on other wiki projects which didn't have a self-sustaining organizational ability. I've tried to research all the Bomis, Nupedia, Wikipedia history etc. myself, but any clarification would be appreciated. I'm going to voice my own individual thoughts on those RfC questions, but if possible, I'd like your input before I do. Thanks. — Ched (talk) 18:09, 1 October 2019 (UTC)


 * My research
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomis&oldid=918445995#History with attention to:
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomis&oldid=918445995#Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nupedia&oldid=917275731#History
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Wikipedia&oldid=918856851

Original 18
 * 1) . en.wp HomePage on 15 January 2001 (12 February 2001 - 1,000 articles)
 * 2) . deutsche.wikipedia.com (German) Friday 16 March 2001, 01:38 UTC
 * 3) . Catalan.wikipedia.com
 * 4) . nihongo.wikipedia.com (Japanese)
 * 5) . French
 * 6) . Chinese,
 * 7) . Dutch,
 * 8) . Esperanto,
 * 9) Hebrew,
 * 10) Italian,
 * 11) Portuguese,
 * 12) Russian,
 * 13) Spanish,
 * 14) Swedish.
 * 15) Arabic
 * 16) Hungarian
 * 17) Afrikaans,
 * 18) Norwegian,
 * 19) Serbian


 * 26 February 2002 Spanish Wikipedia left, now: Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español