User:Jimbo Wales

Welcome

At the Gottlieb Duttweiler Awards Show, 2011

Hello, my name is Jimmy Wales and this is my user page (free from anything that requires a div tag, style tag, or template). I go by 'Jimmy' in real life, but often go by 'Jimbo' online. People sometimes assume that 'James' is my real name, and 'Jimmy' is only a nickname, but my real name is Jimmy.

I was born in the wonderful and beautiful city of Huntsville, Alabama, United States. I founded Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. Since 2006, I have been the Chair Emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation, which I founded on June 20, 2003. In 2004, along with Angela Beesley, I co-founded Wikia, a completely separate organization unrelated to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. I am proud of founding Wikipedia, and I am grateful for what it has offered to millions of people worldwide.

You can edit this page!

Wikipedia is yours. I trust you.
Become a faithful editor in the public interest.

Really, you can! Please feel free to do so. Make an edit! Make several edits! After all, that's what Wikipedia is all about. In fact, this very sentence was written by someone whom I don't even know, then edited by someone else!

I like to keep it a certain way, but the thing is, I trust you. Yes, I really do! I trust that you'll add something here that makes me really smile, that informs me, or that helps to inform many others. But please, don't vandalize.

Over 2,000 Wikipedians monitor my user page via a watchlist and will edit mercilessly or even remove altogether any bad faith alterations made. This is a wiki, after all. So if you are here to vandalize, why don't you turn around and become a faithful editor? After all, Wikipedia can always use more faithful editors. It is, of course, a permanent work-in-progress.

Comments or questions regarding how this page currently looks should be directed to my talk page, rather than this page.

Contacting me

Press inquiries: If your press inquiry is strictly regarding Wikipedia or another Wikimedia project, you can contact me directly by e-mail at jwaleswikia.com, or you can call the Foundation office and speak to our communications person, Jay, at +1 (415) 839-6885. If your press inquiry is for my personal views on some general topic, contact my assistant, Topher, at presswikia.com. He knows how to find me as quickly as possible. If your press inquiry is about Wikia (a for-profit company completely separate from Wikimedia/Wikipedia, extending the Wikipedia social model to become "the rest of the library"), also contact Topher at presswikia.com.

General Wikipedia questions: You will probably be satisfied by contacting the help desk.

Complaints: The best thing to do if you have a complaint is to start with the help desk. Ask a short, friendly question and fellow Wikipedians will be happy to help you. Contacting me directly with a complaint should be reserved for after you have exhausted all other possible remedies.

If you have a complaint about article content, there are several avenues to pursue. The best and simplest way is to just fix it. You can also open a discussion on the article's talk page regarding the issues you want to address. Be sure that you are adding well-written text using legitimate information from credible, reliable sources. If your change gets reverted, continue the discussion on the article talk page to get consensus. That is how Wikipedia works.

Other inquiries of any kind can be sent by e-mail to jwaleswikia.com (press inquiries by e-mail are also welcome).