Are you dreading the day when the Wikipedia appeal banner makes its return? Does the phrase “A personal appeal from Jimmy Wales” give you nightmarish visions of the penetrating stare of Jimmy Wales driving you to involuntarily throw hard cash at the screen in an attempt to make his face go away? Well, turns out that banner has been tested alongside a whole host of other banners, and it’s his face that was most successful in getting you to dig deep.

Neil Kandalgaonkar, a software engineer for the Wikimedia Foundation said: “Banners that use a personal appeal from Jimmy Wales, and in particular that use his face, are the most effective banners by a huge margin. I am told that Jimmy Wales also outperforms other faces, and other “internet-famous” people. There are various theories why, but the data is inarguable.”

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Wikimedia has published the results of all its testing when developing the Wikipedia banner here, and while it’s slightly impenetrable, you can see that this isn’t a half baked project. And we thought you weren’t supposed to trust men with beards.

Why is Jimmy Wales’ face so irresistible? Tell us your theories in the comments!

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  • bensillis

    He's not attractive per se I don't think, but very striking and confident looking. I can see how that would strike a chord with people. The human face of enormous, seemingly anonymous website that's just there.

    Hmmm. Maybe I'm gay for Jimmy Wales.

    • Jenniferlucyallan

      Maybe it's the opposite, maybe he's the face most people don't want to see any more, so they pay some money for it to go away.

  • http://www.GregoryKohs.com Gregory Kohs

    I wonder when Jennifer will figure out that the Wikimedia Foundation spends on program services only 41 cents of every dollar they scam from donors, which earns them ONE STAR (out of four!) from Charity Navigator in organizational efficiency. In fact, their KPMG audit discovered that it only takes about $2.5 million to keep the servers running, provide ample bandwidth, and staff a team of code developers to keep things running smoothly. Why, then, is the ask for $20 million?

    I guess we'll leave that to other journalists.

    • Jenniferlucyallan

      Greg, thanks for your comment, it's really interesting what you're saying, although our piece was a lighthearted one pointing out that for whatever reason, people do give more readily to the face of Jimmy Wales. We weren't getting into a complex discussion about what happens after people donate their money. I'm afraid that we check sources, and you're essentially spamming us with your startup, leaving a link to a business alternative to Wikipedia, o a piece about Wikipedia. Please be careful about this in future.

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Hot chat, right here!


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