zlacker

[return to "Wikipedia is not short on cash"]
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1. ripper+m8[view] [source] 2022-10-12 10:37:15
>>nickpa+(OP)
Eh. If you don't want to donate, don't, but I don't quite get the outrage here. The Wikimedia Foundation is still small as far as charities go and is visibly making Wikipedia better: the new UI is a breath of fresh air, and given the insane complexity of MediaWiki markup, the visual editor is a piece of unimaginable technical wizardry. Wiktionary is an unheralded gem and even Wikidata is starting to be genuinely useful.

For what it's worth, Charity Navigator gives them 4 out of 4 stars with a 98.33/100 rating: https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/200049703

Meanwhile eg the American Cancer Society gets 73/100 and spends more on fundraising than WMF's entire budget, so oncologists can snort blow off hookers in Vegas, but nobody cares.

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2. akolbe+79[view] [source] 2022-10-12 10:43:32
>>ripper+m8
The issue is that they make it sound like they are struggling to have enough money to keep Wikipedia running when they are actually wealthier than ever before.

The whole premise of Wikipedia (or aspiration, at least, and yes, not always fulfilled ...) is that people should have information so they can't be manipulated.

It kind of sucks to see the very organisation hosting the site do the opposite, don't you think?

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3. _glsb+pb[view] [source] 2022-10-12 11:05:49
>>akolbe+79
They don't though. The banner has a whiny tone, but never do they say that they are struggling to keep the site up.
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4. akolbe+1f[view] [source] 2022-10-12 11:34:52
>>_glsb+pb
I agree with the other replies.

Also, last year, the then-Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. (The wife of the WMF’s PR consultant, the Clinton Foundation’s Craig Minassian, works on the show as a producer.)

In the interview, Noah put it to Maher that the downside of being a non-profit is that “you often struggle to have enough money to keep Wikipedia up and running. So, two parts. One, is that true and how does it affect you, and then, two, why would you make this thing if it’s not going to make you money?”

Maher’s cheerful answer made no reference to the WMF’s vast money reserves, but emphasised that Wikipedia’s lack of ads was responsible for the site being so trusted today.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundrais...

If you are in the US, you can view the interview clip here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKdn1s9Sjfo&t=270s

If you're in the UK or Europe, use a VPN (Opera e.g. has got one built in).

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