780
I didn’t donate, I invested in civilization (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
32 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

all 33 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 93 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Legitimately, Wiki is one of the great institutions of the modern net. One of the few things that I look at, with all its flaws, and say "Damn, that's a fine contribution to human society"

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 68 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Love the arc of Wikipedia btw.

    Wikipedia in 2001: "Don't use that site for school, it's not a good primary source."

    Wikipedia in 2025: "Please, we're begging you, just $3 can keep the last bastion of truth on the Internet from falling to misinformation."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 52 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Funny enough, by the time I reached college, my professors were all extremely positive about Wikipedia. Though they emphasized that, as an encyclopedia, it was not valid to use as a source, they all praised it for its breadth, accessibility, and providing citations to valid sources that often could be used in an academic context.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 13 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Not an insignificant fraction probably would be tickled pink if some of their students worked to improve articles about their field. I'm reminder of a quote from Small Gods by Terry Pratchett in which a philosopher named Didactylos warns against defacing scholarly works with scribbles unless the scribbles improve the reader's ability to understand the work (bold added):

    “I’ve got Abraxas’s On Religion,” he said.

    “Old ‘Charcoal’ Abraxas,” said Didactylos, suddenly cheerful again. “Struck by lightning fifteen times so far, and still not giving up. You can borrow this one overnight if you want. No scribbling comments in the margins, mind you, unless they’re interesting.”

    “This is it!” said Om. “Come on, let’s leave this idiot.”

    Brutha unrolled the scroll. There weren’t even any pictures. Crabbed writing filled it, line after line.

    “He spent years researching it,” said Didactylos. “Went out into the desert, talked to the small gods. Talked to some of our gods, too. Brave man. He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.”

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 67 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

    I donated $15 and got an invitation to add Wikipedia to my will

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
    • [–] 34 points 9 months ago

    Fuck it, I'm tired of donating every time they ask. Just switched to monthly.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 32 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    I'll just leave this right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer

    I used to donate but have since switched to other more needing causes.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    IMHO, with all its problems, Wikipedia is still (one of) the best achievement of mankind

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago

    If you feel that Wiki has savings and therefore doesn't need your money today, that's fine.

    But other than that WTF is this nonsense? None of it follows. Says Wiki keeps increasing spending while not noting the obvious - that its savings are growing too. Worse, without noting that a big chunk of the expenses are going towards savings. From the report below, out of the 111M spent, 51M went to savings. His expenditure graph includes savings yet he thinks that's all spending. 😄

    Anyone curious what Wiki spends on: https://wikimediafoundation.org/who-we-are/annualreport/2021-annual-report/financials/#section-2.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 28 points 9 months ago

    I donated once, and the payment processor failed so it didn't even go through.

    I still get the thankyou emails.

    I'm such a phoney.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 26 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I donated to archive.org too, i think there solid things to save

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 14 points 9 months ago

    I donated 3.10 to cover the cost of using a card personally.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    you only got one? pfft

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
    • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    Donated to Wikipedia before and once we have an income again we’ll be donating again since we use it quite a lot

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    How I felt paying for WinRAR

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 0 points 9 months ago

    Im just going to leave this here

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MpeOFvxor_0&pp=ygUOZmVybiB3aWtpcGVkaWE%3D

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] -3 points 9 months ago* (5 children)

    I donated once but then I found out they have a CEO on a six figure salary.

    So they can get stuffed. If they want more cash they can give that leech the boot.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

    You're asking people working for the non-profit to accept lower pay of tens of thousands of dollars? So basically because someone doesn't make a personal sacrifice of a significant fraction of their salary you're not willing to help at all?

    I don't like or accept this logic.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Now I wonder, because both 999k and 100k are six figure sums, and one of them I find much more reasonable than the other.

    But yeah, running a non-profit often takes money instead of earning you money, and if they have spare money to pay salary to the CEO, maybe they're all right

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    That’s not what being a non profit means… they are allowed to make a “profit,” and pay for their liabilities. They just must reinvest them back into the business.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    I'm not sure that not having anyone on salary is part of that deal. Or if you were referring to the part where I said about salary being negative, that's from experience, a couple of directors of a non-profit I know had to donate their salary and add on top of it when times were rough (in that organisation it was pretty often). Large non-profits probably don't have that issue

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago

    lol wow talk about a statement that lets everyone else know not to take anything else you’re about to say seriously.

    You say “6 figures” as if that’s anything BUT the average for a corporate executive… actually kind of fucking low.

    The median total compensation for S&P 500 CEOs was $17.1 million in 2024, marking a 9.7% increase from the previous year.

    https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/06/08/ceo-pay-study/

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent