150m a year doesn’t seem that much, honestly. I know people think “oh, it’s just a website” but it takes a lot of work and money in salaries and infrastructure hosting to keep a web application as popular as Wikipedia up and running.
Comment on weaponized nerdery
IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Just ignore the 150M a year they spend managing finances, contributors, tech, moderation, etc.
gwildors_gill_slits@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
nik9000@programming.dev 3 months ago
I used to work for them. It was weird and wonderful and I miss it and I don’t. Lots of mission driven folks working hard to keep things going getting very little respect. But a lot of respect. But sometimes none.
Iirc a lot of their budget is spent doing charity stuff. Encouraging contributions for tiny languages. Trying not to cave to Russia or the US or France. Trying to make it less of a boys club. Trying to get local organizations going.
I remember once they sent an email that said “if the French government asks you to delete this page please just delete it. It’s not worth going to jail. Someone outside of France will revert the delete.”
I wasn’t qualified for the work. No one was. But it was honest work.
lledrtx@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Thank you for your work, though!
Very curious about the page French govt wanted deleted.
No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Genocides in the colonies.
nik9000@programming.dev 3 months ago
My memory is hazy but I think it was this: arstechnica.com/…/wikipedia-editor-allegedly-forc…
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 3 months ago
150m a year for one of the most trafficked websites on the internet is a bargin
underisk@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
i dont think anyone is ignoring that. the meme is talking about how it was built, not hot it’s currently maintained. it definitely didn’t start off spending that much, and all that money isn’t what made it popular
NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Some would say that most of the spending is based on greed. Individual salaries doubled to tripled in the last decade, with their head earning three quarters of a million now.
It was a tenth 15 years ago.
They started out right, like they all do. Then personal money catches up.
Gloomy@mander.xyz 3 months ago
I wanted to fact check you on this, and you speak true.
…m.wikimedia.org/…/Wikimedia_Foundation_salaries
Makes me question my willingness to donate money to them.
dariusj18@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I think you should consider the opportunity cost of what they would be making elsewhere. Salaries need to be competitive, otherwise you are at the mercy of those who are willing to work for less and hope that the reason is benevolent.
mriormro@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You thinking a $750,000 salary for the CEO of one of the top ten visited websites in the world and arguably one of the most important knowledge resources we’ve probably ever created is ‘greed’ is pretty hilarious.
underisk@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Thinking one guy deserves that much salary for the work of millions of volunteers over decades is what’s hilarious. Do you think those giant pleas that they post when they need money would be as convincing if they listed his salary?
Head@lemmings.world 3 months ago
underisk@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
that’s the spirit