Wikipedia removes revenue numbers on Mozilla Corporation page
funny to watch the meme spread from a rumor at a conference to a fact on wikipedia, to clairification from the company to being removed on wikipedia.
here is the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mozilla_Corporation&action=history
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(Page 1 of 1)2. Your blog entry title implies that someone high up with authority at Wikipedia removed the comment. In fact, it was just one of thousands of contributers, who followed a pretty standard Wikipedia guidelines that material needs to be properly attributed and verifyable.
Wikipedia isn't neccesarily updated in a blog like fashion, where every news snippet is put up right away. Content should be part of a larger entry that is crafted with some research, and if need be, sent back for a review.
You, yourself had 2 options: repost the fact with updated info on the source, or better yet, start using the talk page on the entry to discuss it, if you believe it was worth mentioning in the main article and wanted to get a wider concensus before re-adding it.
Posted at 3:38AM on Mar 8th 2006 by Joost Schuur
3. I think Mozilla loves its Free Firefox "doing it for love" status, thats probably the key to their success apart from providing a decent browser, people start thinking about firefox as a business and it might not be so cool anymore, only a thought.
Posted at 6:10AM on Mar 8th 2006 by jme giffo
4. Joost is 100% correct. The original text wasn't removed because someone wanted to hush anything up, it was removed because it was an unverifiable rumor completely lacking citations but reported as fact: "The for-profit Mozilla Corporation made $72M last year. The primary source of revenue is the Google Search box on the top right corner of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers (probably the Google search box on the Firefox homepage also?). Mozilla gets AdSense revenue from Google. Probably from Amazon also." According to whom? Had I come across that on Wikipedia, I'd have removed it, too (actually I'd have added a citation, since I saw it on your blog, but 95% of Wikipedia users have no idea who you are).
The current version of the page, however, includes the name and background of the rumor's originator (you), partial verification from Mozilla's Christopher Blizzard, and citations for both: "In March 2006, Weblogs, Inc. founder Jason Calacanis reported a rumor on his blog that Mozilla Corporation gained $72M during the previous year, mainly thanks to the Google search box in the Firefox browser. [1] The rumor was later addressed by Christopher Blizzard, a member of the Mozilla board, who wrote on his blog that "it?s not correct, though not off by an order of magnitude". [2]" That's how it's supposed to be done.
Posted at 10:38AM on Mar 8th 2006 by Jordan Running
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1. It is interesting how sensitive people get about making a bit of money to help development. After all - someone has to pay the piper at some stage! It is not "dirty" money. I love my Google search bar in my Firefox browser, and am glad that Mozilla makes money from it so that they can fund distribution of the product. No one loses here. If people want to contribute to open source, they can - but they are not working for a commercial entity - so there is no issue about the money.
Seems pretty clear to me!
Posted at 9:47PM on Mar 7th 2006 by Simon