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What does it take to run the 5th most popular website in the world?

Ads popping up everywhere to pay the bills? Nope. Thousands of paid staff churning out content? Not hardly. Tens of thousands of servers? Not even close.

Maybe for others, but not for Wikipedia. Check the stats:


 * Google: 1,000,000 servers, 24,000 employees.
 * Facebook: 60,000 servers, 2,000 employees.
 * Microsoft: 220,000 servers, 90,000 employees.
 * Yahoo: 50,000 servers, 13,900 employees.
 * Wikipedia: 370 servers, 73 employees

The difference between the Wikipedia community and huge Internet corporations is that Wikipedia is built on the generosity of its readers, and the volunteer labor of its contributors. It’s the fulfillment of the great dream of what the Internet was supposed to be.

And it seems to me like a dream worth keeping alive.

Every year we ask our readers to pitch in $5, $10 or $20 to pay the bills. Every year just enough people donate to keep us free of ads and, better still, free of the influence ads can bring. Please jump in this year and become a Wikipedia donor.

Wikipedia is a place where your donation gets multiplied and leapfrogged upon by the effort of thousands of volunteers; where the fruits of your generosity go far beyond your individual act alone.

Thanks for helping out,