A Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told Newsweek in an email that the chart’s equity section “refers to making it possible for more people to share reliable knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.”
The email continues: “Wikipedia is built on the premise that it becomes better when more people of different backgrounds—including political persuasions—source, edit, curate and research content. Our equity goal advances that. The ‘Safety & Inclusion’ goal (now titled ‘Safety & Integrity’ in our 2024-2025 plan) is focused on ensuring that people are able to freely access and safely contribute to knowledge on Wikipedia in a changing legal and policy environment globally.”
The spokesperson continued: “The goal centers on legal efforts that protect free expression, prevent censorship and advocate for laws and regulations that keep Wikipedia accessible for all to use.”
I don’t think that’s where a lot of donors (especially but not exclusively conservative donors) want their money going, and I don’t think Wikipedia’s donation requests would lead these donors to realize that that’s where some of their money would be going.
Where your donation goes
Technology: Servers, bandwidth, maintenance, development. Wikipedia is one of the top 10 websites in the world, and it runs on a fraction of what other top websites spend.
People and Projects: The other top websites have thousands of employees. Wikimedia Foundation has about 700 staff and contractors to support a wide variety of projects, making your donation a great investment in a highly-efficient not-for-profit organization.
I don’t think that’s where a lot of donors (especially but not exclusively conservative donors) want their money going, and I don’t think Wikipedia’s donation requests would lead people to understand that that’s where some of their money would be going.
Why are you trying to frame this as if wikipedia was lying on where their funding goes when your own source is their own transparency article?
They’re not lying but they’re being misleading. Everyone who donates sees the donation page, but it’s reasonable to assume that almost all of those donors don’t read the “Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2023-2024/Finance” page.
Your donation goes towards running Wikipedia. There’s a blurb for pitching that, with a few details, but if you want everything, you gave to go to another page and read it? That all sounds exactly like what I’d expect from a banner ad seeking donations for a website
The claim about the budget is true.
Source.
I don’t think that’s where a lot of donors (especially but not exclusively conservative donors) want their money going, and I don’t think Wikipedia’s donation requests would lead these donors to realize that that’s where some of their money would be going.
Source.
I suppose that “People and Projects” is vague enough that it isn’t false, but I was certainly surprised when I saw the actual budget allocation.
Edit: I accidentally posted this with an image from an episode of the Simpsons instead of the chart I meant to post. Please disregard that.
Why are you trying to frame this as if wikipedia was lying on where their funding goes when your own source is their own transparency article?
They’re not lying but they’re being misleading. Everyone who donates sees the donation page, but it’s reasonable to assume that almost all of those donors don’t read the “Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2023-2024/Finance” page.
How do you think employees get paid?
I assume that employee salaries are included in the category that corresponds to the work that they do.
You don’t think people want to access Wikipedia safely and securely or guarantee an egalitarian sourcing of information?
“I didn’t know how a public-facing non-profit catalogue of information spent its money. Now I do. And I hate it.”
shrug
Why do people think their own personal ignorance is an indictment?
Your donation goes towards running Wikipedia. There’s a blurb for pitching that, with a few details, but if you want everything, you gave to go to another page and read it? That all sounds exactly like what I’d expect from a banner ad seeking donations for a website