CMAwatch wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2020 9:28 pm
If they don't want to change, they should at least advertise with honesty.
Ad opens with an empty office set, Jimmy Wales walks into frame stage right.
Jimbo: Hello there, I'm Jimmy Wales,
Sole Founder of Wikipedia, I pinky swear, and I am here to promote the website. We at the Wikimedia Foundation know that the number of site editors are dropping, so we want to acclimate new users to Wikipedia, and attract new people.
Silent assistant comes in from stage left, whips out easel, puts a card on it which Jimbo points out with laser pointer.
Jimbo: Point One (points to card) is "We have a lot of coots, crankish folks, and neckbeards in powerful positions." You should know they aren't being paid, but you have to treat them like that weirdo from HR at your own job, if you work in an office. If not, they are like that insane customer at your muffler shop. Avoid them but show deference like you are an enlisted sailor in the German Kriegsmarine and they are Grand-Admiral Doernitz and you are both in the middle of World War II.
Think about it (stares into camera with burning eyes, which we see in extreme closeup).
Pointer goes to second point.
Jimbo: Point Two is "Don't mention all the
insane scandals - the Past is the Past." If you hear about Essjay the fake professor, or all the pedophile child grooming going on ten years ago, or my former role as the Grand Chingon of the Four P cult, or hear about MONGO, or what happened at the 2016 Wikiconference - please don't pass it on. Or write about it in the IRC. We know there are people who blog about these issues, and we wish they would burn in Hell, but Jesus and Ayn Rand don't answer those prayers.
Pointer goes to third point.
Jimbo: The Third and Final Point is "Don't notice how obsolete Wikipedia is, or for that matter, much of the social media landscape." We really stopped mattering during the Obama administration. Google is this giant landlord of anything written down since 1710, Craigslist is a junk store, and eBay like a sketchy car trunk sale in a bad neigborhood. Why haven't we been rolled by the Chinese? Thank the Great Firewall and Xi Jinping Thought which can be summed up in the racist sentence "Fucka yoo, Yankee Ghost man - we do it owr own way, wit' websites that combine YouTube with eBay!" Even a nation of ex-rice farmers turned IT specialists knows that the American internet is yesterday's thing, like the British auto industry! But forget that!
Coffee is for Closers, and the first and second rules of Fight Club is "
We do not Talk about Fight Club!"
Wales strides off stage right as the silent assistant folds up the easel and walks after him.
Female Voice Over: Wikipedia - we're kinda like Fight Club,
but for the Mind!