Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, has decreed an end to arguing over whether Gregory Kohs should have been allowed to speak at WP’s meeting May 30-June 1 at New York Law School.

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Wales image via

Wales, who describes himself as the “sole founder” of WP, posted this statement on WP today after more than 10,000 words had been expended on it:

{{hat|This conversation appears to have run its course. I am very strongly supportive of the decision taken to exclude Gregory Kohs from WikiConference USA. I know nothing about the other editors he is complaining about and I'm not likely to take any interest in it. My position on conflict of interest editing is well known and has been explained many times, so there should be nothing else for me to say about that in this context.--[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 08:10, 19 June 2014

(UTC)}}

"{{hat}}" is a wiki template that "closes" a discussion.

WP has an appeal process but whether this will be allowed remains to be seen.

Change.org is collecting signatures on a petition to allow Kohs to speak at WP meetings.

Wales, born in Huntsville, Ala., where he "attended Randolph School, a university preparatory school, earning bachelor's and master’s degrees in finance" (according to his bio on WP), co-founded WP in 2001 with "Larry Sanger and others."

The WP write-up notes that Wales has "disputed" the co-founding statement, "declaring himself the sole founder."

He is on the board of the WP Foundation, the non-profit charitable organization he helped establish to operate WP, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat.

He founded Wikia in 2004, a for-profit wiki-hosting service.

Revenues of the WP Foundation grew 26.4% to $48,635,408 in the year ended June 30, 2013. Net assets grew 29.4% to $45,189,124. Much of the money comes from annual fund-raising drives among users who are asked to make small donations so that WP will be able to function. EIN is 20-0049703.