Forum:Contributing to a commercial company

Hi guys. I'm very happy about the existence of the wikia search, because it's the right step into the right direction in the meaning of open source and open minds. And like Wikipedia it could be a great deal to make the world a bit better. But behind the Wikipedia there is a non-profit organization!

How do you feel by contributing your mind and work (with adding Mini-Articles at the moment) to a profit orientated company like Wikia? Isn't that a bit strange? Ok, Flickr and YouTube and MySpace are the same sort of companies, but they are fun-related and not as necessary as a search engine is.

Please give me your opinion about this fact.

Sorry for my very bad english, Phxx 21:59, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

• The things one is contributing are in the public domain, so is isn't as though you are only contributing only to a company - since anyone could take and use the software and information created here. In fact if someone was suitably motivated they could just take the entire site and implement it elsewhere. Also there are certain advantages to a site having commercial backing in terms of efficiency of operation and funding. I'm not sure it really matters that someone makes some money out of a service being provided.(Taw 13:57, 9 January 2008 (UTC))

But this someone who makes the money may be influenced in his thoughts about the future of this service. I think if there is a way to make more money with wikiasearch, the wikia-company would follow this way - even it's not the best way to go in the meaning of opensource and open content. Ofcourse they need the money to exist and to provide this searchenginge, but wikipedia needs also a huge amount of money to keep alife. But in Wikipedia there are enough people who spend their money for this nonprofit organization. But i would never spend my money to a profit organization ... Phxx 10:10, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Certainly this is a valid point. An company, regardless of the aims of the people who work for it, will likely be implicitly influenced by money - However, this is not the only influence. Further, the fact that the company will rely on a community might restrict how immoral tt can be - but I'm not sure how this works in practice. Also, I'm not sure that it is the case that non-profit organizations are necessarily morally pure:

• Relying on donations in effect turns you into a company of some description.
• People involved within the organization (being people) will be have motivations other than purely doign good.

Wikia search will certainly be more open than any other search provider - if it becomes successful, which would broadly be a good thing. If you are particularly zealous about properly unencumbered search you could view Wikia search as a necessary stepping stone to developing free software and information than can be used elsewhere. (Taw 12:28, 10 January 2008 (UTC))

Ok, tanks for your meaning. Furthermore there is the fact that the contributions of the community are necessary for wikia(-search) to survive (to earn money) binds the company to the habits of the community. If the company does bad things, the community will stop contributing.

I think your arguments and this thing is enough for me to take on my participation. :-) Phxx 13:21, 10 January 2008 (UTC)