this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
150 points (100.0% liked)
Asklemmy
43395 readers
1646 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.