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Uncategorized Tuesday, November 16th 2010 at 11:41 am

Why Is a Giant Jimmy Wales Staring at You on Every Page of Wikipedia? Science.

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You may have heard that the Wikimedia Foundation, the not-for-profit group behind online encyclopedia Wikipedia, recently launched an appeal asking users to donate money to keep the site free; Wikimedia is targeting $16 million of fundraising over the next two months. You may also have noticed, if you’ve been on Wikipedia anytime lately, a gigantic banner atop the page containing a photo of Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales staring at you, possibly causing your latent scopophobia to kick in. What gives?

In fact, open data provided by the Wikimedia Foundation reveals that the giant Jimmy Wales ad is not just a monument to the founder’s egomania, but that it’s emerged at the top in a process of natural selection, testing much better than other appeals.

Appeals like “thanks for the brain massage” (cutesy) and “Admit it – without Wikipedia you never could have finished that report” (too close to home?) had lower click-through rates and far lower eventual donation rates on a per-day basis than giant Jimmy. And even that’s been tweaked and tested in a number of ways: “Please read: A personal appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales” tests significantly better than “A personal appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales” without the “Please read,” for example.

Using this data, Information Is Beautiful’s David McCandless has created a chart of the efficacy of various Wikipedia appeals: (click to see full-sized)

(Wikipedia via Information Is Beautiful)

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  • Amedeus

    I really wish he’d cut it out. He looks like a serial killer and having his big-eyed awkward stare at me on every page is making me avoid the site when I don’t absolutely need to be there. Just creepy. He is an unsettling man, and he should get that fixed.

  • dwss5

    Here is Wales’ P.S. note on one of his monetary appeals:
    “P.S. Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it, one donation at a time. It’s proof of our collective potential to change the world.”

    My own comments:
    “Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things.”
    Like YOU here, Jimmy, not like everyone else.
    Wikipedia content is created by an elitist group of authors; not by you and me.

    “People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time.”
    And too many words are heavily edited-out ALL THE TIME by contributors who cannot circumvent the censoring grip of those elitist editors, try as they may!

    “People like us fund it, one donation at a time.”
    People like YOU should fund yourself and your lavish “business” expenditures!
    As the saying goes, a fool and his money soon parts ways (no, not quoting the Wikipedia on this!)

    “It’s proof of our collective potential to change the world.”
    No, it’s proof of the Wikimedia’s effectiveness or lack thereof to extract finances from the online masses who have little other alternative.
    Nasty stares belong right back at Jimmy and his co-conspirators!

  • Jill

    dude, what’s wrong with you

  • Qpls1908

    ^ Maybe you should wiki it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/aleksandre.glonti Aleksandre Glonti

    Even if he makes millions, he surely deserves them. Smartasses such dwss5 keep their mouths shut, until they make something as useful as Wikipedia. Thank You!

  • Asdasd

    Really ….you say that about a man who is devoting his life to provide knowledge to all….you motherfucker!