zlacker

[parent] [thread] 13 comments
1. marcel+(OP)[view] [source] 2025-10-28 15:18:15
I love Wikipedia, but Wikimedia does not need your donations at all, as much as its misleading ads try to convince you it's on the brink of death.

As far as this particular article goes, it just comes off as kind of cringeworthy to me. This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

replies(5): >>btilly+B3 >>mapont+o7 >>radley+hd >>qingch+0J >>tapete+8t2
2. btilly+B3[view] [source] 2025-10-28 15:32:57
>>marcel+(OP)
Indeed, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C... is a worthwhile read on this. Wikimedia is on an internal expense growth spiral that won't stop until they max out on the willingness of others to donate.
replies(1): >>zozbot+Ub
3. mapont+o7[view] [source] 2025-10-28 15:51:05
>>marcel+(OP)
> This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

You know what else has happened in the last 10 years? People got stupid.

Between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults at the lowest levels of illiteracy increased from 19% to 28%. Some studies show that the US's peak literacy was around 2015 and has been decreasing ever since.

replies(2): >>unethi+S8 >>marcel+q9
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4. unethi+S8[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 15:56:40
>>mapont+o7
How? How do 28% of people not know how to read?
replies(2): >>mapont+jb >>george+hc
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5. marcel+q9[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 15:58:28
>>mapont+o7
This article is not some intellectual thinkpiece that only the literati can comprehend. Trends change, humor evolves. If "shoop da whoop", rage comics, leetspeak, and motivational posters aren't funny anymore, it's not because people "got stupid".
replies(1): >>mapont+Cb
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6. mapont+jb[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 16:06:24
>>unethi+S8
Fifty four percent of Americans now read below the sixth grade level, and the trend is getting worse rather than better.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/

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7. mapont+Cb[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 16:08:04
>>marcel+q9
I'm not talking about the Literati. Anything above the sixth grade level is no longer suitable for the majority of the population.
replies(1): >>marcel+Kc
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8. zozbot+Ub[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 16:09:12
>>btilly+B3
Wikipedia is one of the highest-traffic Internet sites worldwide, and it's still being run on a comparatively shoestring budget. It's also an ongoing project, so the usual claim that technical hosting expenses are only a few percent of what's being spent on it overall is misguided. No one would care about hosting a dead encyclopedia

Keeping volunteers editors around is also a harder problem today than it was a decade ago or so, as purely passive consumption use of the Internet has exploded and overtaken the former model of a largely volunteer-run network. Wikipedia is just about managing it today with its current resources; if it had more, it could do better and launch a greater amount of technically compelling projects that would ultimately further its mission. (Already today, Wikidata, one of the more recently-created projects, is getting more edits over time than the largest Wikipedia and acting as a much-needed "hub" of the Semantic Web and Linked Data, which sees much use by the largest tech companies.)

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9. george+hc[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 16:11:30
>>unethi+S8
It'll be below PIAAC level 1 or similar. Even below that level many people can read simple text and extract basic information.

Perhaps it also includes people who can read other languages, but not very well in English.

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10. marcel+Kc[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-28 16:13:51
>>mapont+Cb
I assure you, the reason McSweeney's is no longer funny is not because the humor is too smart. "peer review deez nutz" does not require reading above the sixth grade level.
replies(1): >>archag+lg2
11. radley+hd[view] [source] 2025-10-28 16:16:04
>>marcel+(OP)
> This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

That's because reality trumped satire.

12. qingch+0J[view] [source] 2025-10-28 18:24:53
>>marcel+(OP)
The donations are voluntary. I donate money and articles because I've gained so much from having Wikipedia available to me. If they have a big war chest, that's fine, I'll help make it bigger so they don't need to stress about money. If they spend it on some wacky projects, then that's OK too, experimentation is important as well.
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13. archag+lg2[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-10-29 04:39:11
>>marcel+Kc
Except it is still funny. You just don't like it.
14. tapete+8t2[view] [source] 2025-10-29 06:55:36
>>marcel+(OP)
Indeed. I like how the website claims "McSweeney’s accepts no writing aided in any manner by AI."

Really hard to believe that a garbage “article” like this was produced by a human.

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