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It’s almost impossible to believe that Wikipedia could exist -- with all content created entirely by volunteers.

It works because there’s this unspoken light inside all of us that comes from the desire to help educate, to help share knowledge. And that’s what makes Wikipedia so magical.

The tech, personnel and legal infrastructure that supports it all is paid for by all these tiny little donations, just individuals giving $5, $10 or $20. Please join us by pitching in now!

I’ve contributed to hundreds of articles about snails and other invertebrate animals. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been a total nerd about sea shells and land snails. They’re my passion. And on Wikipedia, I get to share my weird passion with the world. If you stop and think for even a second, you’ll realize how fabulous it is to get this information without a paywall, and to not have to read ads. It’s like a voice of sanity in a crazy, consumerist world. Wikipedia is truly staggering because it’s the 5th most consulted website in the world. Google might have close to a million servers. Wikipedia has only 400. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. Wikipedia? Just 73. Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 454 million different people every month – with billions of page views. If you benefit from Wikipedia, maybe you feel like you have a sort of moral obligation to kick in at least a small amount of cash to support it if you can. Please donate today to protect and sustain Wikipedia. Do it for whatever weird thing you love. Thanks,

Susan Hewitt Wikipedia Author