Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-01-02/News and notes

Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser continues
The three-week Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser continued this week, and will close on Saturday. As of press time, the fundraiser had raised over US$840,000. Notably, a matching funds donation of $286,800, from an anonymous donor, was received on Wednesday. Other large donations during the drive included $2,000 donations by Ali Webster, Francis Hogle, and Gary Frisch, a $2,350 donation by Chien, a $4,096 donation by Jeff Moe, $5,000 donations by the Burt and Diana Cutler Family Foundation, Craigslist, Graphics Press LLC, and The Sims/Maes Foundation Inc, and a $25,000 donation by Two Sigma Investments, LLC, as well as various other anonymous donations.

In a related story, a controversial Virgin Unite logo included in the sitenotice at the top of all pages raised concerns over whether the logo could be construed as an advertisement. This logo, which appeared on the site during the 24 hours that Virgin Unite, the non-profit organization of Virgin Group, was matching donor contributions, was criticized for its similarity to the Virgin Group's logo, and as such, users worried that such an image would constitute an advertisement. The discussion led to a question about whether controlled advertisements might be appropriate in some cases, to handle the large amount of money required to keep the Foundation running. Some community members announced their intention to leave the project over this issue. Full discussion on the issue can be found on the mailing lists: (December 2006, January 2007)

Appreciation Week planning
In honor of Wikipedia Day on 15 January, Badbilltucker has proposed an Appreciation Week to thank editors and WikiProjects for their service to the project. Planning continues on whether an event will occur.

Briefly

 * The English Wikipedia has reached 100,000,000 edits, and 3,141,593 registered users.
 * The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages passes 130,000 total pages and 175,000 edits.
 * The Latin Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
 * The Aragonese Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
 * The Swahili Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
 * The Yoruba Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
 * The Zamboanga Chavacano Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
 * The Sicilian Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
 * The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 15,000 pages.
 * The Nahuatl Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
 * The Malayalam Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
 * The Somali Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.