Template:2011FR/appeal-jimmyeditS-US-0326

Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We're #5 on the web but only have 679 servers and around 100 employees.

So who created and fact checked Wikipedia's 20 million articles in 270 languages? And who pays for the servers, the tech staff and the legal team?

You! Whether you spend a few hours improving a Wikipedia article on something you care about or donate $5, $20 or $50, you make Wikipedia thrive. Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others. When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.

If everyone reading this donated $5, we would only fundraise for a day. Not everyone can donate. And that's fine. Every year just enough people give, and just enough people edit, to keep Wikipedia thriving.

Thanks,

Jimmy Wales Wikipedia Founder