Wikipedia talk:Donations

Starting this page
I think this is quite important, so I start this page. But I don't know anything yet about it. Information welcome!

Things that could be interresting:
 * When can we start with it
 * Link to the official donations-page
 * What will be done with the money

Fantasy 09:39, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * This should be on meta, probably linked from funding, Making Wikipedia profitable, Advertising on Wikipedia. Martin


 * I just started the article, you can move it whereever you want, I don't disagree. :-) Fantasy 21:36, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

from the village pump
Is it possible to donate money to Wikipedia, for things like new/improved servers and the like? -- Schnee 01:01, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Not yet. We'll wait until all the wikis together have reached 300000 articles and then we'll hold a big fundraiser and announce Wikimedia.&mdash;Eloquence 01:14, Aug 10, 2003 (UTC)


 * This way, when the server falls over under the publicity-generated load, we'll look like we really need the money. :P --Brion 02:14, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)

time scale
Just curious: what time scale are we talking about (for the donations)? Weeks, months, 2003? Fantasy 21:52, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * It works now ;-) Fantasy 22:11, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

protecting this page
I just protected this page. I am not yet sure, if that is right, but I have the feeling that not everyone should be able to change the donations-address... Fantasy 22:11, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * For more info, try Protected page. --Menchi 22:20, Aug 22, 2003 (UTC)


 * OK, I added it there. I hope, that is ok. Thanks a lot, Fantasy 22:25, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

snail mail address
Maybe you can also put the snail mail address on this page? Jimbo posted it on the mailing list today and it is also a matter of public record, I hesitated posting it before, but considering not everyone in the world has a credit card, maybe using the regular mails should still be considered, no? Alex756 23:14, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Accountability
I think it is a great idea to allow wikipedians to put their money where their editing is, so to speak, but I also think the running total of donations and whatever use is made of the money should be documented on the donations page. With greater transparency will come greater donations. -- Miguel


 * Yep, that point is raised Donations. --Menchi 22:42, Aug 22, 2003 (UTC)


 * On the same line of thinking, am I correct that right now the Wikimedia foundation is essentially one person? Is there a way that Wikipedians could become "members" of this foundation and play a direct role in the decision making process?  Will there be some sort of foundation "Mission Statement" that has to be followed.  Before I donate, I'd like to be sure that the money goes where it is supposed to be going and if possible I think wikipedians should be able to have as much decision making power as possible. -- Ram-Man 16:29, Aug 25, 2003 (UTC)

Donations for software development
Unless a rich wikipedian dies, I think we should not spend donations on software development. As far as I can tell we have some experienced developers already. If they lack some knowledge others will jump in, I'm sure. For every week a paid software engineer looks into the code we can buy another machine. Erik Zachte 03:39, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * I think, I have to explain this Idea also a little bit better: I did not mean to "pay external developer", I intended to support existing developer. A simple example: Brion Vibber told me, if he would have a laptop, he could work on the Wikipedia software even when he is traveling. So, by donating he could have a Laptop and Wikipedia could have even better Software. And it would also show him (or other developers), that their work is appreciated. Hope, that makes this Idea more clear ;-) Fantasy 08:04, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * PS: To donate for his laptop, go to http://leuksman.com/misc/donate
 * OK, that sounds fine to me. Brion is indispensable. Erik Zachte 11:56, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Thanks to those who have donated! :) --Brion

Donations for brilliant prose
Is this a joke or what? If so, it is in the wrong place. People need to feel they can trust the money is spent well. Erik Zachte 03:39, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Maybe I did not explain it so good. If you say: The best Article contribution or the best image contribution of the year 2003 is: XXX by user YYY (nominations, vote...). He gets 200 US$. Just an Idea. Just as an incentive for people to contribute something really brilliant or giving really good contributors a little reward.
 * See it like this: The Wiki-Nobel prise ;-) Fantasy 07:49, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * PS: It's just an Idea, nothing more.


 * Wikibel prize? :) Dysprosia 07:56, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Remember all the dicussions about Wikimoney? It is contrary to the whole Wikipedia philosophy, where people contribute because it is fun, out of idealism and a sense of belonging to a community. Yes, we could recognize valued contributors by nominating them as Wikipedian of the Month. Honours will do, adding money to that takes away rather than adds to it. There are so many real good uses for donations that even mentioning such whimsey purposes will shy away some people from donating. Too bad the article page is locked, it is not enough to explain and discuss things here; the article itself should be unambiguous and void of nice to haves when we don't know what to do with the money. A wiki prize falls in that category in my view. Erik Zachte 12:26, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * All we need now is Wikfred Wikibel to die and leave us his legacy. --Menchi 07:59, Aug 23, 2003 (UTC)


 * And one more point: The Donator decides, what his money is used for! It seems to me, that you where worried about that. You can give (soon) a special "task" to your money, when donating ;-) Fantasy 08:08, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * I do hope this is a joke! I have donated a small amount of money because I want the slow server problems to be solved. I write, and my friends write wikipedia articles because they love doing it - not to be rewarded!

Hardware improvements
New Server... Fantasy 08:12, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Does this page need to be protected?
Does this page need to be protected? If it's just an issue with vandals changing the address, we could have the address in a protected page but it seems unfair to leave the whole page locked when a lot of people are wanting to make changes. Angela

How about creating a page: Donation addresses and protecting that? Alex756 14:07, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Soon Jimmy will set every detail on www.wikimedia.org. The infos here are just temporary. When his page is working we create just a link, and we can unprotect the page. Is that ok? Fantasy 15:32, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * I still agree with Angela, the only reason to protect the page is to save the address, protect the page that ONLY has the address, the page is otherwise a mess and SHOULD be edited, no? Alex756 15:56, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * OK, done ;-) Fantasy 16:16, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Why are there two identical pages? Wikipedia:Donations Details & donation addresses. One protected, one not. Merge? --Menchi 21:09, Aug 23, 2003 (UTC)


 * Good queston. I'm going to delete the duplicate Donations details and protect Donation addresses. Angela

Announce!
I think this should be announced on Announcements: something like:


 * Please donate to the Wikimedia foundation and help us buy a new server - see Donations

MyRedDice


 * Be bold ;-) Fantasy 23:00, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I've suggested to Jimbo that we use Networkforgood to take donations. They are a non-profit that offers free (minus a small processing fee [smaller than Paypal]) donation collection services to non-profits. Hopefully Jimbo will sign up for this service ASAP. { MB | マイカル } 18:36, Aug 25, 2003 (UTC)

Testing easier to use paypal interface.
MediaWiki doesn't allow forms on any wiki page. But it does on uploads See if this works:. --mav 20:44, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Better idea: http://meta.wikipedia.org/upload/6/68/Fundraising.html Comment at --mav

Page outdated now?
Since http://wikimediafoundation.org/fundraising exists and is easier to use (HTML forms), is there still a reason to keep this page? Brion even set up Wikimedia Fundraising page as a place where meta admins can make real time changes to http://wikimediafoundation.org/fundraising (so far it is a bit of a hack, but shows great promise as a way to maintain the foundation's webpages). --mav

Redirect?
Since this page is depreciated, why isn't it a redirect? If I don't get any objections, I'll do it. JesseW 11:47, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Perhaps it should be a soft redirect to avoid people being automatically sent to the foundation wiki and thinking they are still on Wikipedia. Angela. 04:11, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC)


 * Yes by all means remove everything from the page except for the message at the top and maybe a few sentences of extra information. You might want to replace the word "deprecated" with a more approacheable word, even obsolete.  Be bold and just do it, as I doubt anyone would object.  Oh what am I saying.  I'll do it! -- RM 04:26, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC)