Jimmy Wales Meme

December 2, 2010 4:37 PM

Jimmy Wales Meme

Bonus infographic ad analysis: The Science Behind Wikipedia’s Jimmy Appeal Oh wait ... Another beautiful infographic with glaring errors goes viral

posted by memebake (56 comments total)

Wikipedia is a worthy cause but I can't help but wonder — how much of my donation will be used for further close-ups of Jimmy? Can I request "any usage but that"?
posted by Kortney at 4:46 PM on December 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

Best/Worst part: how the Wikipedia page looks squished onto mobile devices (aka my phone). It's a bit better now (or I'd mock up a screenshot), but it looked similar to The Frogman photomash: Jimmy Wales was the primary photo for any and every topic I read about. I had a juvenile laugh at some of the random pairings.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:47 PM on December 2, 2010

Ceiling Jimmy is watching you not donate
posted by Nelson at 4:47 PM on December 2, 2010 [23 favorites]

Jimmy Wales has managed to circumvent two separate adblocking extensions that I use on Chrome, even if I block all images on Wikipedia altogether. After trying numerous different calibrations, I simply gave up, and have tried to make peace with JW's giant smirking mug.

Maybe the Chrome extension in the second link has the right idea - put the banner on every single webpage you visit, so that you eventually don't even notice it anymore.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:48 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Alt link for the first image (original site currently overloaded)
posted by memebake at 4:49 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Self-link.
posted by Joe Beese at 4:52 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Please read: A personal appeal from the outlaw Josey Wales
posted by Llama-Lime at 4:52 PM on December 2, 2010 [16 favorites]

I think they've wised up in the past couple of days and replaced Jimbo's steely visage with pictures of (and personal appeals from!) various contributors. Which was a good idea.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:54 PM on December 2, 2010

Matt I think you got next year's april fool's idea right here.
posted by boo_radley at 4:58 PM on December 2, 2010 [16 favorites]

Eponysterical.
posted by anigbrowl at 4:59 PM on December 2, 2010

Pleas Read: A personal appeal from hellojed (0_0)
posted by hellojed at 5:00 PM on December 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Joe Beese: Self-link.

Are you saying that I'm Jimmy Wales?
posted by memebake at 5:01 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

4chan
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:02 PM on December 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

Appealing cat is watching me hesitate...
posted by anigbrowl at 5:04 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm actually enjoying the Chrome extension.
posted by doublehappy at 5:06 PM on December 2, 2010

Am I the only person stupid enough to frequently confuse Jimmy Wales with James Whale?

Yeah, I thought so.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:06 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

very well played 4chan
posted by boo_radley at 5:06 PM on December 2, 2010

Well what can I say, it worked on me. I initially laughed off his steady unblinking gaze and then an hour later I was typing in my credit card number.

I confess, if I had the ability to make that Jimmy Wales face I... would not use that power for good.
posted by danny the boy at 5:07 PM on December 2, 2010

The day we start getting A Personal Appeal from Mark Zuckerberg banners is the day I expect the four horsemen of the apocalypse to burst forth from the sky and reign hellfire.
posted by phunniemee at 5:09 PM on December 2, 2010

So why is this Randian objectivist asking everyone to donate their hard earned money for altruistic reasons? Is Wikipedia like Scientology, where you have to become an OTXXVII before Jimbo reveals Wikipedia's hidden profit motive or what?
posted by Avenger at 5:11 PM on December 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

Also, I'm proud of Jimbo for apparently unlocking the "Stalinesque Portraiture" achievement.

Upturned chin, steady hard gaze that pierces the soul -- Jimbo would have been a fine dictator in another life.
posted by Avenger at 5:14 PM on December 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

After trying numerous different calibrations, I simply gave up, and have tried to make peace with JW's giant smirking mug.

Why would you go to all that trouble when you can just click on the little X in the upper right corner and never see it again?
posted by Rhomboid at 5:17 PM on December 2, 2010

Never see it again, until the next time I go to Wikipedia after rebooting.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:18 PM on December 2, 2010

That's not been my experience. It sets a permanent cookie. In any case if you want the nuclear option, add this to Stylish (or I suppose you could also add it to your user style page)

@-moz-document domain("en.wikipedia.org"), domain("secure.wikimedia.org") { #siteNotice { display: none !important } }
posted by Rhomboid at 5:27 PM on December 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

If you really want to get rid of Jimmy's visage once and for all, it's worth noting that disabling Javascript in Wikipedia doesn't seen to affect the function of the site... except to shut off that infernal ad.

Discussion here: https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6347
posted by cybrcamper at 5:49 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

4chan

WARNING: TMNSFWTE
(The most Not Safe For Work thing ever)
posted by JHarris at 6:07 PM on December 2, 2010

A very personal appeal from Jimmy Wales
posted by Rinku at 6:10 PM on December 2, 2010 [9 favorites]

before Jimbo reveals Wikipedia's hidden profit motive or what?

Isn't that what Wikia is?
posted by drezdn at 6:12 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

does these sites explain why the bad guy from battlefield earth keeps popping up at the top of the page

im just a man-animal but it scares me a litle
posted by Greg Nog at 6:13 PM on December 2, 2010

A personal appeal from Jimmy Olsen.
posted by arto at 6:18 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Favorite thus far.
posted by EatTheWeak at 6:28 PM on December 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

Am I the only person stupid enough to frequently confuse Jimmy Wales with James Whale?

[cetacean needed].
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:30 PM on December 2, 2010 [19 favorites]

4chan should be perfectly safe for work, except the parts that are marked not safe for work.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:34 PM on December 2, 2010

Rhomboid: "That's not been my experience. It sets a permanent cookie."

Ah, to clarify, my browser settings are such that cookies (and lots of other stuff) are wiped out every time I close it. Adding *wikipedia.org/*##div[id="siteNotice"] to my AdBlock filter list, from cybrcamper's link, was what did the trick for me. IN YOUR FACE JIMMY.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:44 PM on December 2, 2010

Really need to get a script out there that replaces it with a picture of Larry Sanger.
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:52 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was hoping this would catch fire. I totally wrote a poem about his gaze the minute I first...gazed upon it, and I stuck it up on my blog obviously, and pretty soon I started getting tons of hits for like JIMMY WALES FACE, JIMMY WALES FREAKING ME OUT, UNBLINKING MESMERIZER JIMMY WALES, JIMMY WALES DEATHBRINGER WHO LOOKS US TO DEATH, JIMMY WALES THE ECLIPSE SHOULD NOT BE STARED AT DIRECTLY
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 6:57 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Shave the Wales. My dad'll like that one.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:08 PM on December 2, 2010

I just got an appeal from a Wikipedia user named Lilaroja.
posted by cgc373 at 7:16 PM on December 2, 2010

A personal appeal from Mathowie.
posted by anigbrowl at 7:17 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm amazed at the number of people who havn't seemed to realize you can close it, perminantly just by clicking the little x in the corner (or at least for a week) I've probably seen it like twice.

But yeah I think switching off 'ole jimbo was a good idea. He's kind a douche. And encouraging delitionists to run rampant in order to drive more traffic to his ad-festooned wikia sites.
posted by delmoi at 7:24 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

So why is this Randian objectivist asking everyone to donate their hard earned money for altruistic reasons?

That's exactly what I thought at first, but Rand herself (or at least the Ayn Rand Institute, here) didn't actually say that charity was bad - only that it shouldn't be regarded as good in itself, or as something that all decent people should be expected to do.

I think Objectivism is a crock of crap, and Objectivism-as-normally-practised is rather worse again, but you can't get 'em on this one.

And in any case, even if Jimmy's a hypocrite and a dog-kicker and a cannibal, that only means he's bad, not wrong.
posted by dansdata at 7:25 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

(Though maybe wrong on the dog-kicking and cannibalism. Research continues.)
posted by dansdata at 7:26 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

It seems to me that I regularly hear objectivist friends suggest that charity should solve problems that I would consider more properly in the domain of government.

I usually hear that as a sort of wishful-thinking "I'm sure *someone* will still pay for that" sort of comment, but they invariably seem to recognize that some charity is necessary for their worldview to result in a reasonable place to live. I didn't know Jimmy wales is objectivist, but I don't see how that's incompatible with appealing to charity...
posted by grae at 8:24 PM on December 2, 2010

I like the nymph one on Uncyclopedia myself.
posted by NoraReed at 9:02 PM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

That's exactly what I thought at first, but Rand herself (or at least the Ayn Rand Institute, here) didn't actually say that charity was bad - only that it shouldn't be regarded as good in itself, or as something that all decent people should be expected to do.

What did she think about begging for money?

Every year Wikipedia's "pledge drive" period gets a little more insistent. Relative to other things, I'd think that Wikipedia would have an extremely high money-to-benefit ratio, enough so that they might want to consider asking the government for money. Assuming, you know, that no petty ideological concerns would prevent that.
posted by JHarris at 9:18 PM on December 2, 2010

What did she think about begging for money?

She probably said several mean things about it. But as a practical matter it's rather difficult for charitable donations to occur unless someone asks for them, so I think we can sort of take that as read.

(And in any case, Ayn Rand the rather unpleasant person versus Objectivism the philosophy are another example of the hypocrisy-doesn't-actually-make-you-wrong thing. Even if Rand believed all charitable requesters and donators deserved to be struck by lightning, that wouldn't make statements to the contrary wrong, even if they were hypocritically made by her. It's a bit like those creationists who believe "Darwin recanted on his deathbed!" is an argument against evolution; even if he had, it wouldn't be.)
posted by dansdata at 9:33 PM on December 2, 2010

I'm amazed at the number of people who havn't seemed to realize you can close it, perminantly just by clicking the little x in the corner (or at least for a week)

I think it's more that people underestimate the number of computers people deal with nowadays. Your iPhone, your work PC, your home PC, etc. And if the persistent closing doesn't work on one of those, no one really notices which one it is.
posted by smackfu at 10:24 PM on December 2, 2010

>What did she think about begging for money?

She probably said several mean things about it.

For instance, Atlas Shrugged.
posted by topynate at 10:39 PM on December 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm amazed at the number of people who havn't seemed to realize you can close it, perminantly just by clicking the little x in the corner (or at least for a week)

What smackfu said. Additionally quite a lot of us have our browsers set up to discard cookies at every opportunity, if not simply reject them outright except for certain favored sites which don't function without them. Wikipedia is otherwise usable without cookies so I've never opted in to them there. I don't especially want to just to avoid seeing this damn graphic.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:06 PM on December 2, 2010

oh god every time i've gone to wikipedia recently - and encountered thehideous basilisk stare of jimmy wales - i've let out a little shriek and had to get away, get away!

i hated it so much, it took me awhile to find the litle "x" and close the banner, cuz i'd scroll down or navigate away from the page as fast as possible. but the "x" does not permanently get rid of the horror; it comes back when you least expect it.

so thank you, rhomboid i will try your adblock suggestion.
posted by lapolla at 2:04 AM on December 3, 2010

"But yeah I think switching off 'ole jimbo was a good idea. He's kind a douche. And encouraging delitionists to run rampant in order to drive more traffic to his ad-festooned wikia sites."

This is an amusing conspiracy theory; do you really think it's true?
posted by jaduncan at 2:38 AM on December 3, 2010

Not only is it true, but if you donate $10,000 or more, you get a telekinesis plasmid.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:44 AM on December 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

"Jimbo would have been a fine dictator in another life."

Sadly, he has to settle for dictator over the sort of people who argue over the technical specifications of a light saber.
posted by indubitable at 5:33 AM on December 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

I didn't know Wales was a Randian objectivist, but Wikipedia is so extremely useful to me that I still plan to donate. Presumably Wales can only use my money for evil if I send gold bullion anyway.
posted by DU at 5:33 AM on December 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh! Oh! I'm having one of those... uh. A headache with pictures!
posted by boo_radley at 9:13 AM on December 3, 2010

Tada!
posted by boo_radley at 9:44 AM on December 3, 2010