Gregory's ServerAh, I see the Wikipedia is having another pledge drive. Here's your reminder that they literally have more money than they know what to do with, and have a full-time investment manager who just looks for stuff to do with their giant pile of cash.
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29 comments
  @cjrando I don't mind that, but what I do mind is them deleting articles.   @StampedingLonghorn @cjrando I don't mean to "but actually", though it is worth noting that the WMF and its governance is totally different from things like deletions which are community-run. There are definitely issues with how notability and such is applied, for sure, but that's unrelated to the giant pot or gold.   @CodingItWrong @cjrando probably from here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/09/22/wikimedia-foundation-reaches-100-million-endowment-goal/ - I think there may be other parts of the article that didn’t fit OPs narrative. I’m glad they shared though, this helps me feel a little better about Wikimedia’s future, as a (small) donor myself I’m glad my donations have gone to further improve something that is likely to be around for a long time.  @CodingItWrong @cjrando I find this to be good news too. Wikipedia seems to be one of the remaining non shittyfied essential services so I am glad they have some reserves. @cjrando Is that a bad thing? Looks like they qant to become self funded. For that to work you need a huge pile of cash. @cjrando I've found the source here:  @cjrando I'll give them money when they do something about their platform being controlled by a racist and transphobic rightwing mob. @cjrando Wikipedia is the internet at its best. I don't begrudge them a few bucks here and there. The more stuff they make, the better the world is. @cjrando There's a certain irony in the fact that a Libertarian ends up getting one of the only sites on the internet that isn't running at a loss due primarily to ebegging like one of us poor queers who needs health care.  @cjrando ok maybe i just dont know enough about how things work but… how can you be non-profit and gain hundreds of millions of dollars? @foervraengd @cjrando for all sorts of reasons. Non-profit simply means that profit isn't the driving motive behind whatever you do (along with various rules about governance and ownership, e.g. can't have shareholders you pay dividends to). It is still sensible to build and maintain cash reserves to support anything like unexpected costs for equipment/infrastructure/legal defense etc. The Wikimedia Endowment Fun this discusses provides grants to support other projects. @foervraengd "Nonprofit" is a misnomer .. it really means "not for private profit." It's just a tax status that means any profits are supposed to serve a social good and not go to executives etc. Still lots of room for abuse of their supposed function 😑 @cjrando @cjrando I gave them money many years ago and they won't stop screaming at me for more @cjrando I don't mind them building up their cash, some of which I gave them. They are generally a fine organization afaik. Also, it's very difficult to make much on money nowadays without being speculative so they need a big amount.  @sullybiker I occasionally comment that our major universities have become hedge funds that happen to do a little education as a side hustle. @cjrando I'm fine with Wikimedia having and making money. Insinuating that non-profits need to be cash strapped is and that it is somehow a problem when they have a lot of money to work with feels quite toxic. As far as I can tell the money is used in a good way, helps further their mission of free knowledge. So I think it's a win.  @cjrando Other FOSS/open media projects meed the money more than the WMF does, yeah @aismallard Yeah, that's more or less my feeling. They're wildly successful at fund raising, and the pledge drives show no signs of slowing. And frankly, I don't think excess is a good thing, wherever it ends up. |
@cjrando that's fine but it's also a good practice to share the source of your information along with that information