i’ve been assured not all billionaires are bad so how come none of them are stepping in to save wikipedia - ThreadSky

marisakabas.bsky.social • 63 days ago

i’ve been assured not all billionaires are bad so how come none of them are stepping in to save wikipedia

World’s richest man was posting this as he was approaching xmas eve.

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Musk likely can’t repeat his Twitter stunt with Wikipedia. Its vast knowledge base and resilience make it harder to buy and dismantle with a hate-filled, divisive algorithm pushing disinformation and chaos.
🇺🇸💪🏼📢⚖️🫶🏼🇺🇸

midatlantica.bsky.social•63 days ago

Do we want their fingers in Wikipedia?

mattyjoee.bsky.social•62 days ago

Everyone donate to Wikipedia like your life depends on it

apearlma.bsky.social•63 days ago

They're not in any real danger unless something weird is happening. Revenue > expenses+endowment.

apearlma.bsky.social•63 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation

golux13.bsky.social•62 days ago

I'm not 100%sure, but it seems likely that the Venn diagram of people who worry about "woke" and people who donate to Wikipedia consist of two completely separate circles.

mryamatani.bsky.social•62 days ago

After all these years, and the grat help it made in getting me through university, I just started a monthly donation... might need to increase it...

claire.chapien.net•63 days ago

Isn't jimmy wales a billionaire? idk how involved he is in wikipedia anymore tho

claire.chapien.net•63 days ago

nevermind, jimmy wales despite being a libertarian weirdo is only worth sligthly over $1million, which could not sustain wikipedia on its own anyway

nopassaran.bsky.social•63 days ago

Fuck the billionaires I don't want any of their scummy claws on Wikipedia

it's up to us to save it.
losing Wikipedia would be catastrophic.

tagishsimon.bsky.social•62 days ago

Wikipedia (or the Wikimedia Foundation) does not need saving, at least not financially. It's richer than Croesus.

It does need much better management, by people who are interested in improving the platform. That is not something that Billionaires can help with.

probablepossible.bsky.social•62 days ago

Appreciate the insight

probablepossible.bsky.social•62 days ago

What improvements are you thinking of?

tagishsimon.bsky.social•62 days ago

Off the cuff, 1) it should not have taken more than 21 months to fix the graph problem 2) WMF uses the most dreadful map tiles rendering them useless for many tasks 3) has withdrawn geolocation of 3rd party maps 4) has split wikidata rather than invest in a performant SPARQL engine.

davefernig.bsky.social•62 days ago

It is best if it is funded by subscription from the multitude than dependent on a narrow source of funds.
This is pretty much the model and its strength.

proleartthreat.bsky.social•62 days ago

Antiwoke guy does nothing but telling people to stop, don’t, won’t, not etc etc
Be a shame if someone stepped out behind him one chilly New York morning

jimdunn.bsky.social•63 days ago

Wikipedia has always survived with donations by "the little man" [by that I include myself], so I hope that Elon's moronic comments help attract a slew of donations. Wikipedia is a worthy recipient of our money and praise.

unstable-idiot.bsky.social•63 days ago

jimmy wales claims he's only worth $1 million but he owns 2 houses and a singular award he received was $1 million in cash. he seems like an interesting target for investigation how much he's hiding

javanaise.bsky.social•62 days ago

or, you know, we can spend the time investigating people who do actual harm.

unstable-idiot.bsky.social•62 days ago

you sound like an elon musk simp. same shit different billionaire

javanaise.bsky.social•62 days ago

sure, jan.

amyhoy.bsky.social•63 days ago

save it? is it in danger

davidjorgonson.bsky.social•63 days ago

It's doing OK financially so far. It's concerning that the incoming president-non-elect would like to destroy it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Finances

davidgerard.co.uk•63 days ago

let's say there's a battle every year between the editor base and the somewhat unhinged fundraising dept

otoh, donations to wikipedia will piss Elon off, so that's a net increase in human happiness

amyhoy.bsky.social•63 days ago

what kind of battle??

i understood the endowment is already very large. is that wrong?

davidgerard.co.uk•63 days ago

mostly that the editors think the fundraising messages are extreme to the point of inaccuracy

we do have a nice endowment, but it does take quite a chunk of change to run a top 5 site

wooble.geoffreyspear.com•63 days ago

Elon assured me he could run it off his iPhone though

davidgerard.co.uk•63 days ago

i wonder if someone showed him Kiwix

https://kiwix.org/en/

which is specifically offline wiki dumps, e.g. for devices

davidgerard.co.uk•63 days ago

whoops, actually number 7 as of nov 2024. anyway it is not cheap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-visited_websites

davidgerard.co.uk•63 days ago

there's argument about whether we need to take in as much as we do, but otoh pissing off Elon is a public good for humanity

sibben.bsky.social•62 days ago

The good billionaires have been suspiciously absent as of late.

caryopter.bsky.social•63 days ago

Recent report says US has *1,000* billionaires. No one needs that much money - or the power that comes with it.

philsustainability.bsky.social•62 days ago

Musk's companies (Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter) face scrutiny and criticism. Wikipedia is a platform where negative information of his businesses is easily accessible and amplified, outside his control.
Musk cultivates a rebellious, anti-establishment persona. Criticizing Wikipedia lets him market himself

srossmktg.com•62 days ago

Boy did Tom Steyer ever disappear into the ether...

kokojoe.bsky.social•63 days ago

Not all billionaires but until the good ones start calling out the bad ones it’s all billionaires.

4xsample.cat•62 days ago

No one can accumulate billions without being a horrible person.

clancyny.bsky.social•63 days ago

I just read they have like a $100 million endowment in the bank. So, not going to tumble down tomorrow. And, thankfully, not dependent on the U.S. only.

realthomasbell.bsky.social•62 days ago

Somewhat dependent on US free speech laws unfortunately.

clancyny.bsky.social•62 days ago

Like Musk then? :)

realthomasbell.bsky.social•62 days ago

If only Wikipedia was the shadow President.

clancyny.bsky.social•62 days ago

ummm. lol.

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