Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces auction of his first edit as NFT; triggers controversy

A recent development has indicated that Wikipedia editors are dissatisfied with Wales' decision, enraged the internal Wikipedia community.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces auction of his first edit as NFT gcw

Team Newsable

New Delhi, First Published Dec 9, 2021, 5:22 PM IST | Last Updated Dec 9, 2021, 5:22 PM IST

Jimmy Wales, a co-founder of Wikipedia, has announced the sale of an NFT of his first Wikipedia update. He has also chosen to sell the iMac Strawberry on which he created the website. In addition to social media sites, he announced the auction on Wikipedia's user discussion page. A recent development has indicated that Wikipedia editors are dissatisfied with Wales' decision, enraged the internal Wikipedia community.

The user discussion page on Wikipedia is where people may exchange remarks. The corporation has strict rules against self-promotion on the message board. According to Vice, Wales announcing the sale of his first-ever NFT and iMac machine on the topic page has ruffled a few feathers, as editors believe Wales has breached the self-promotion rule.

This apparent breach sparked a debate in which the editors voiced their thoughts, and Jimmy retorted with defence reasons. Wales defended himself, claiming that the WMF (Wikimedia Foundation) Board and legal staff directed him to tell the community. Wales stated that labelling the thread as self-promotional is "silly," and that he did not expect to locate a customer among random chat page users.

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Some editors contended that the talk page is the only place Wales could find a buyer since only a die-hard lover of Wikipedia's history would purchase such an NFT. The post announcing the auction was deleted after a few battles.

However, the discussion shifted to the NFT and editing rights, with opponents claiming that the NFT Wales is selling might impact Wikipedia's appearance. However, it was revealed that the NFT was only a replica of the memory of the first time Wikipedia said "Hello, World!" and not the real editable code. This is Wikipedia's first-ever Hello, which has been transformed into an NFT. Wikipedia professes to be extremely cautious in these matters and has a strong policy against self-promotion on the website, even if it is for a good purpose.

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