this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy
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As long as servers cost money to run, corporations will need to be involved.
At a fundamental level, it's either
a) run by donations as a non profit, but as we've seen from wikipedia it will be a constant struggle to have enough money to last indefinitely (especially since Reddit / kbin / lemmy cost a lot more to run than Wikipedia)
b) run by subscriptions, which will greatly limit growth, reach, search engine optimization, etc.
c) run by advertising in which case corporate ad networks (like the kind that Meta runs) will need to be involved or
d) have instances that are government run / paid for, but it would be difficult to accomplish on a global scale and may come with restrictions that not everyone is happy with
It sucks but those are pretty much the only four options for running a digital community that requires paid servers and hosting space. Either corporations or some large government organization are going to have to be involved.
About your first point, I've heard that Wikipedia is actually very wealthy and doesn't need the money. They essentially run a scam every year asking for more.
I don't understand why everyone freaks out that wikipedia tries to keep a reserve. Yes, they have enough money on hand to run for a few years... Is that really such a bad thing? Why does everyone think nonprofits should be scrimping by before they do their next donation campaign?
To me, keeping a reserve fund just seems like good money management, and I'd rather donate to an organization that manages their money well than one that doesn't. If there were problems with a large chunk of donations not going to wikipedia upkeep it would be different, but as far as I can tell all of the controversy is just over the fact that they have a reserve at all
The biggest problem is the fact they beg for donations and the wording makes it seem like they are about to shut down unless you donate right now. They are disingenuous.
No one said having reserve funds is bad, so please don't put words in my mouth. Just don't act like you're about to shut down Wikipedia to get more money when you literally have millions in reserve. It's scummy.
imagine if wikipedia actually shut down. I dont fault them any precaution as long as it doesnt cause actual harm. Though if they just keep doing that even though they have money for tens of years in reserve then that starts getting a bit suspicious.
They won't shut down because they have a ton of money. Plus if they were in actual trouble, people would donate to keep it alive.
The boy who cried wolf is what will kill them. Begging for money acting like they are about to shut down, despite them having a ton of money in reserves, is disingenuous.
If they really cared, do what Reddit used to do. They had a daily server cost on the website with a progress bar. Everyone who bought gold would add to the counter, and the Reddit community could see how much more needed to be donated to cover the server costs for the day.
Be open about your finances. Don't guilt people into donating when you're not actually low on funds.
If I could see a live donation vs cost counter on Wikipedia, I'd be inclined to donate more. Ever since I heard they have a bunch in reserves, I never know if they are actually running low, so I don't donate. Their crocodile tear banners begging me to donate falls on deaf ears.