I have done so on occasion.
I get quite a lot of good out of Wikipedia.
According to the wikimedia foundation the costs for hosting the service are covered for the next decades. Most of their money goes to lobbying and other political efforts.
So no. I like their website and am happy to help keep that funded but for now they don’t need help doing that
I would like to add that the Internet Archive otoh is on treacherous water and could use some of the dono.
Not just political efforts - for example they fund their outreach programs and workshops for disadvantaged people to get their specialized knowledge onto Wikipedia.
But yeah, hosting is already funded therefore I dont currently feel the need to donate to Wikimedia.
I think like Archive.org deserve a bit more attention as I feel Wikipedia is doing good enough.
When they plaster that “If everyone reading this donated $x.yz right now, we’d be done within the hour” message I’ll usually donate exactly the amount it says.
I barely have money to keep myself alive, let alone the sum of all human knowledge’s website.
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Is there any equivalent in non-Western countries?
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Appreciated!
Smells like an opportunity to me!
If you go all in and work really hard, I bet you could make 10 of dollars. Maybe even 20 over time.
Which is actually where donating to them can help. They fund editathons, outreach efforts, events, and conferences, some of which explicitly focus on getting information into Wikipedia from underrepresented areas or people.
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Once a year, $10 or so
Every so often, yeah. Usually $10-$20CAD or so.
I have in the past. I don’t donate that much or that often as they are well funded and would like to help other projects as well. I don’t make good money, so I often don’t give more than a few dollars, but will try and do so recurring.
I donate monthly to Wikipedia, Signal, and Octoprint.
Probably cheaper than Netflix too nowadays.I give to wiki, but recently convinced my wife we don’t need Netflix. Feels great tbh
Hey! Fuck yeah, Octoprint! I’m a Patreon supporter and love the development. That shit about plugin manipulation was the catalyst to my contribution and highly recommend that platform for all new 3D printing enthusiasts!
Just got my 9 year sticker in the mail too.
I don’t even use it as much these days, but it helped me a lot when I was starting out, and I still use it for the webcam.Hello,
FYI, we moved to https://sh.itjust.works/c/casualconversation@piefed.social!
Yes. It’s important.
Occasionally
Not regularly, but once or twice. I think a lot more people should donate to the internet archive though.
I would, if I got money. Even if most money goes to lobbying, as another user said.
Nope. But that’s just because I’m wayward and perpetually broke. If I had my shit together I for sure would because it’s been one of my main sources of information through the years, whether it’s an interesting article or lists of things to collect / watch / listen to. And it’s not enshitified or tacky and provides information in text form and not video form. So if it stays that way, the magical future me that is finally financially stable definitely will.
I’ve heard some of the money goes to questionable people
Yeah but Elon Musk hates them so they get my money.
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I remember seeing about it in a show from the German public broadcast which presents their journalistic work in a satirical way.
In short: People who do the actual work on wikipedia (writing articles, admins, moderators) do not get paid. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), an NGO from America, gets the donation money. Managers in that NGO are rich and earn a lot of money every year. They don’t need the donation money to run the website. With the money available to them right now, they could host Wikipedia (with its high traffic) for many more years.
I didn’t find the episode of the show, unfortunately, but many articles covering it.
Here’s one I think sums it up well: https://unherd.com/newsroom/the-next-time-wikipedia-asks-for-a-donation-ignore-it/
Here’s a thread on Hacker News with more links and comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34106982
I recommend doing some research yourself. There are many articles on various websites. Search for “wikipedia donation scam” or something similar.
They fund interesting projects anyways. It’s not like all donations go into managers pockets. But yes it is something to keep in mind for sure.
It’s good that they fund projects aimed to create more equality and meet human rights. Personally, I’d choose different organisations supporting the same causes which seem to better handle donation money. We really don’t need rich managers as middle men, especially when the aim is equity.
Being able to run a site without donations for years without any incoming donations is a great thing, but years isn’t really that long, and what would happen when that money ran out? There would be a last minute funding push for a company with a proven record of financial malpractice, who would want to donate to it then?
You’re right that the editors don’t get money, but they do get a reputable unbiased platform that they can share their knowledge on, and for many people that’s more than enough. (Source: Wikipedia, Reddit, Lemmy)
I find it very dishonest that they design their donation banners in a way to paint themselves as people who are in a dire, needy situation when in reality they could run that high-traffic website for several more decades with their current capital. This article claims it could even be 75 years.
In case the rich managers will actually run down the website, I think another website like it would pop up really quick. The Wikipedia software is open-source and there are many other Wikis already. Creating another “general” instance seems trivial. People who do the work would not lose a permanent paid employment because they don’t have one, they would just switch over to the next instance. Wikipedias data (and many other Wikis) are already being backed up by third parties. The knowledge will not be lost.
Oftentimes, doing a job for the “good will” really doesn’t pay off. Being an admin or moderator can take a huge mental toll. That’s one reason we are not on reddit anymore: They also don’t pay their moderators while the CEO is a rich asshole. Another current example is the reason of the shutting down of the lemm.ee instance (explained in their stickied post). A lot of workers in non-digital jobs get abused in the same way: No or low salary but too much working hours. They, too, are expected that “doing something good” would somehow prevent the excessive mental and physical stress they experience. Examples are hospital and nursing staff and animal welfare and shelter staff.
There’s always someone out there who will say that about anything. And there are always questionable people who would take advantage of others charity. Don’t let that stop you from trying to spread good.
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