Jimmy Wales Is Creeping People Out on Wikipedia Again, Pay Up for Him to Go Away

By now, you've probably noticed that Wikipedia is running its yearly fundraising campaign again. And, just like before, this means that you'll be seeing a lot of Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, for the next month or so.

Don't worry though, the headshots do change from time to time, so you won't get bored seeing the same old face day in day out.

That said, you may get confused as to why every Wikipedia page is about Jimmy Wales, since it's not immediately apparent that the image is part of the banner and not the actual page you're visiting.

Whereas, last year, people were complaining that they were getting tired of seeing Wikipedia's creator all the time, this year Wikipedia decided to place his photo on the left, leading to even more confusion.

It's all for a good cause so no one is giving Wikipedia too much flack over it. Plus the banners will change throughout the campaign and Wikipedia folks likely heard the complaints.

Here's one way of getting rid of the banner if you really find it annoying, though, just donate something to Wikipedia. It doesn't have to be much and, considering that most people have used the site on more than one occasion, it's 'the right thing to do.'

Google's Sergey Brin donated $500,000, €370,000, but you can probably get away with a bit less than that.

Interestingly enough, just so you don't think Jimmy Wales really likes to see his face over millions of pages, Wikipedia actually tested this and found that these more personal banners led to the most donations.

"Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 679 servers and 95 staff," Wales starts of his "personal appeal" to Wikipedia users.

"Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 450 million different people every month – with billions of page views," he says. "Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia."

"Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others," he adds.