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The rest of the Internet used to be really cool.

I remember, in the mid-90’s, anyone could publish anything they wanted. There was so much diversity on the Internet back in the old days that it felt more like a community of interesting people rather than -- you know -- just glorified television, which is basically what it feels like now.

I’m one of the people who created Wikipedia. There are thousands of us. We write and edit all these articles as volunteers. And we decided a long time ago that sharing information and educating people is more important than making money.

The non-profit that hosts Wikipedia does need money to keep the servers running and pay a small staff. But instead of having advertisers and financial influence skewing what we do, every year we simply ask our readers to vote with their dollars to support a real community of people who represent something different on the Internet.

Please pitch in $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can to keep Wikipedia on the web -- and free of ads.

When you contribute $10 to Wikipedia, it’s multiplied many times over. If that $10 goes to pay one developer’s salary, who then develops a tool that lets 1,000 volunteers do something great on Wikipedia, then all of a sudden your $10 has facilitated a lot more than it can in any other non-profit.

Your donation will help thousands of volunteers like me to keep making Wikipedia better -- and to make sure that at least this part of the Internet stays cool.

Thanks,

Ryan Kaldari

Wikipedia Editor