Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate? • Hacker News Board

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#421

Post by ClumsyPilot » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

This is the third time I see this on the front page in a year and it suggests there is something rotten with the culture on HN.

Wikipedia has given more to the world than facebook or twitter or most webshits pistaking here (including me) ever could. It could have become another ad funded monstrosity, but they have chose to create a charity.

To attack them with such demonstrably poor grasp of their finances, projects and public outreach shows a degree of arrogance and hypocracy that is trully something to behold.

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#422

Post by h_anna_h » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

apercu wrote: post #332

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything above 100K is sky-high, and you need to have drunk a lot of the SF kool-aid to think anything else. That the cost of living in SF is so high that a wage like that doesn't cover basic living costs is not because the wages aren't high enough.

Hold on there, cowboy. 100k was maybe "sky high" 20 years ago. 100k in most large cities is not. When your modest house costs $800k USD, a car costs 30k, auto insurance is $1600 a year, groceries are 10k a year (looking at you, Toronto), just how in the hell is 100k "sky high"? $80k was a decent salary in a mid-size city 15 years ago. Just because six figures seems like a lot of money to you doesn't mean it's a lot o…

> When your modest house costs $800k USD, a car costs 30k, auto insurance is $1600 a year, groceries are 10k a year (looking at you, Toronto)

How did you get these costs? You can get a French Chateau with that much money. https://www.prestigeproperty.co.uk/french-chateau-for-sale-2...

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#423

Post by ClumsyPilot » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #295

zhdc1 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was expecting to see semi-outrageous, border line unjustifiable executive salaries after reading this comment and clicking on the direct link below. I guess there's a chance that executive compensation went up significantly after 2018, but nothing I saw looks out of place for an organization as large as Wikipedia. ~300k for a San Fransisco-based CEO and an average salary of ~120k for all employees employees seems f…

What exactly is that CEO doing for that money? What important strategic decisions are there to make at Wikipedia? Why do they have to be San Francisco based? The annual real median personal income in the US in 2019 was $35,977[0], how can anyone think that $120k isn't a lot? Why should people around the world donate their hard earned money so that some employees in America can have Silicon Valley salaries? [0] https:…

"What exactly is that CEO doing for that money"

What is CEO of Twitter doing that CEO of Wikipedia isn't? Why dont we have a discussion of their salaries?

Both are working a job. Enployees are not donating, donors are

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#424

Post by kevinwang » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

saurik wrote: post #231

soco wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because all Wikipedia needs to do is to keep the website up, yes... This sounds pretty much similar with the argument on which the education system gets constantly defunded.

Funding Wikipedia's side projects--like wiktionary--doesn't seem particularly valuable; Wikipedia doesn't spend much money actually improving Wikipedia, and what effort they have put in was spent on things like the "visual editor" project that both their own surveys and studies showed wouldn't actually improve editing.

I haven't seen those surveys, (and I'm not much of a Wikipedia editor) but anecdotally, the visual editor seems to me like an obvious and long overdue direction forward.

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#425

Post by andrepd » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

I still don't get why wikipedia doesn't do a very simple thing with some of its funds: pay editors full-time.

I realise the potential for conflicts of interest, but simply either (i) disburse grants to already prolific editors, to support their efforts, or (ii) pay recognized experts to improve articles which are lacking (e.g. pay historians, philosophers, biologists, etc).

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#426

Post by iSnow » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:40 PM UTC

reader_mode wrote: post #408

iSnow wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80k annually works out to 6700 EUR/m If Wikipedia(1) is semi-accurate, no (ZERO) major European county surpasses this. Not even Switzerland which clocks in at 70k EUR. And that's average, the mean is even lower due to skew by those making top money. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...

In Europe that nets you about 50-60% after mandatory pension, health insurance and income tax. You listed net incomes. 6.7 gross will be >4k net And slap 20-25% VAT on top. That money is really not that much, a generalist MD would make that for eg.

I specifically linked to gross income, it's 5882 EUR/m in Switzerland according to Wikipedia, or 70.5K EUR annually. Germany is 48k EUR gross, around 30k net.

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#427

Post by iSnow » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:40 PM UTC

IQunder130 wrote: post #403

iSnow wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80k annually works out to 6700 EUR/m If Wikipedia(1) is semi-accurate, no (ZERO) major European county surpasses this. Not even Switzerland which clocks in at 70k EUR. And that's average, the mean is even lower due to skew by those making top money. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...

Mean and average are the same thing. You might be referring to the median instead.

Yes, thanks.

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#428

Post by mehdix » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:44 PM UTC

exdsq wrote: post #350

NoOneNew wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I survived by doing landscaping and construction labor. You really know you're earning your nickels and dimes in the Florida summers when you work those jobs. Imaging a universe where people make $500k+ is pretty easy. I mean, let's be serious for just a minute. This is a tech focused community. Programming, IT, computer science, you didnt really get into this line of work because of the glamour, the guaranteed spot…

I'm in tech because I enjoy it. There's something fun about programming - it's similar to the logic puzzles I play in my own time. If we're on HN, probably on a bank holiday for most of us, then I assume if you read this you enjoy it too. I don't know anyone who got into tech for the money - much easier to earn more in IB/Quant Trading.

I can only second this. I entered software because I enjoyed making things with little computing devices. It was unlocking many new possibilities compared to a non-IT job that I could never do otherwise, since we had not much resources in our disposal.

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#429

Post by crimsoneer » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:45 PM UTC

apercu wrote: post #419

bluescrn wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median income in the UK is just over £30k (about 35k EUR)

We're on hacker news. What is the median for people in UK that that do what we do?

Honestly, not that much higher...i think? I'm a data science person so not dev, but feel like salaries above 65k or so not hugely common?

Re: Wikipedia is swimming in money–why is it begging people to donate?

#430

Post by benhurmarcel » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:45 PM UTC

reader_mode wrote: post #410

jiofih wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. Average salaries in WE are 25-40k.

For what casheers and janitors ? I'm talking about highly skilled professionals. If your making 80k you're making an average in that group, it's certainly not sky high

A junior engineer (with a Masters) in most of western Europe makes 30-40k€/year before taxes. After 10 years, he'll make 50-70k€/year.