We get it; we really do. Lawmakers across the world are rightly focused on regulating powerful, for-profit platforms to mitigate the harms ascribed to social media and other threats online. When developing such legislation, however, some draft laws can inadvertently place public interest projects like Wikipedia at risk. At the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia platforms, we have found that when a proposed law harms Wikipedia, in many cases it likely harms other community-led websites, open resources, or digital infrastructure.
on the one hand they make some valid points on the other hand it's a little disgusting how much wikipedia execs get payed and how sweaty they get when they worry about having to pay content moderators. currently they just pocket most of the donations they get but with increased running costs that would get harder.
don't get me wrong, wikipedia is an important project and they deserve fair compensation but grabbing $700k per year for managing it seems a bit steep eh? it's not like they're forging new business strategies and conquering markets. they have a very simple concept and just keep it running. a post it note on the ceo door with "keep going lads" on it might outperform them and save some money.
Isn’t $700k per year really low for a CEO or high level exec of an extremely visible, important, high-profile firm?
Just because it's low compared to other CEOs doesn't make it reasonable and justified. Also, Wikipedia isn't a "high-profile firm". It's (at least supposed to be) a non-profit that takes donations to keep the site running and free.