I donated to Wikipedia once before, but never again. Their endowment has grown to a level where they should be completely self-sustained. However, spending is out of control.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer
Edit: I’m glad Wikipedia exists, but to say they are hurting for more cash is completely false. Even according to their own financial disclosures, web hosting expenses have stabilized under $4-million a year (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation). As contributions continue to grow, it is spent on higher salaries for executives. The CEO made $789k in 2021, all while content is created by volunteers.
Edit, edit: a relevant chart straight from the Wikimedia Foundation Wiki page is below. Internet hosting is one of the smallest expense buckets and has been relatively flat year-over-year. Alternatively, salaries and wages are on an unsustainable upward trajectory. This chart is even a few years old and salaries have almost doubled in the last three years to over $101-million in 2023, all while hosting expenses have remained flat.
My post has nothing to do with wokeness or whatever Musk is ranting about. The guy who wrote the essay I linked, originally posted it in 2016/2017? and has been keeping it updated. This abuse of spending is not a new topic. But sure, keep donating so the executives can take home more pay.
The “essay” (for me) read more like a rant about the author’s opinions regarding hypothetical situations and how, in many people’s views, a successful non-profit spends money. Sure, maybe WMF could spend less but the table looked reasonable. I’ve donated before and I’m sure I will again because I use Wikipedia all the time. I am going to spend more time learning about the organization and its spending, but as of reading the linked material, I’m unmoved.
Also, I get that 789k is a lot of money. Really more than anyone needs but it’s hardly an absurd amount given the norms for CEO pay. Yes, CEO pay is ridiculous but so is the entire economy, speaking as a US citizen. I would have guessed higher and many non-profit CEOs make much more than 789k. Plenty of people, with less responsibility and impact, make more than that so that pay is not really a WMF specific point.
Did you not read the part where this is the seventh most visited site on the internet… in the world? Literally any other website would be paying their CEO millions upon millions. This guy is basically taking a gigantic pay cut working for Wikimedia.
And do you have any idea how much it costs to have the bandwidth and server space to host the enormity of Wikipedia? It is quite literally one of the physically largest web sites on the internet. And it is continually and constantly being added to. The only other voluntary free information site that really beats it is the wayback machine. Which is another favorite target of conservative douchebags.
It’s almost as if rich media moguls don’t like people having free access to information they don’t control.
And quite frankly I’m of the opinion that you are likely either working for one of them or one of Elon’s army of sycophants (I had to retype that several times because it kept auto correcting to “sicko fans”, and honestly I don’t think that’s all that inaccurate either) who are out to help him control the narrative.
Do you have any idea how much it costs to have the bandwith and server space to host the enormity of Wikipedia?
Yes $2,335,918 in 2019 per their disclosures. They spend more on travel expenses.
Wikipedia is a non-profit. The goal shouldn’t be to rake in tons of cash.
Legal fees and legal staff take up much of their expenses as well. When you have a platform that aims to make truth public, you are getting threatened with lawsuits 24 hours a day.
Why should non-profits not want to “rake in tons of cash” if it helps advance the mission of the non-profit?
I’m pretty sure we want content created, vetted, and edited by volunteers. It prevents bias, in theory.
Sure, I’m not against that and I never said otherwise. It also helps keep costs down. I definitely don’t want to see an Elon-enshitified version of Wikipedia with ads and paid content creators. I mostly like Wikipedia just as it is. The one exception would be that I don’t like how they try guilt tripping everyone for donations.
With $400-million between Wikipedia and their endowment, they should easily be able to cover the $3-million in web hosting expenses, without ever touching the principal of their investments. Wikipedia should be already setup to run in perpetuity, if not merely decades.
Was going to donate to wikipedia a while ago but didn’t because they didn’t have any fees. Hosting doesn’t cost that much for them and their current fund will have them set for a long time. Because of this, I might have to donate.
ugh
Can somebody take aim on his head finally?
Nah, too basic and low-tech. He deserves nothing less than a drone strike
Ya he needs one of those knife missles we usually reserve for “terrorists”
It would be more suitable for Mr. “I AM High Tech Personified” to be taken out in a decidedly low tech way.
Maybe we can combine high and low tech: a drone that drops lazy dogs on him. Those things are REALLY nasty and very hard to defend against.
Tbf, if it is true, it is kinda ridiculous they spend 29℅ of their budget on DEI nonsense. They should use their donations for keeping up the infrastructure and maybe rewarding high-quality editors. Kinda tells me they are doing very well financially and I’m better off supporting other projects.
Musk can still go fuck himself.
