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They are useless for any politically controversial topic. They definitely have a bias.
Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
41–50 of 202 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#42All the other top websites [1] either are selling my information (Meta) , exist to show me ads (Google), or I pay monthly for (Netflix). Wikipedia runs one of the busiest websites in the world with a staff much smaller than any of those other sites. Like any company -- there's going to be priorities different than mine and waste. But I'm ok being asked to chip in for what I get. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_…
I was okay 'till I donated and got thoroughly spammed by them after that. Not okay with donating there now.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#43Goodbye Hacker News. A bunch of extremely well-paid SWEs complain about donating two bucks to a completely free encyclopedia representing hundreds of thousands of volunteer human hours of effort; replacing (sorry, “disrupting”) extremely expensive Britannica books means to me the orange site has lost it’s way.
An item hitting the front page doesn't mean anything like "most people here agree with the premise". Just that they find the content potentially interesting to see, discuss, debate, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#44I think it’s tolerated because.. we don’t have a choice other than to tolerate it. What else are we going to do? Are we going to close the browser window and not use Wikipedia?
> Are we going to close the browser window and not use Wikipedia? This is precisely what I do. There are plenty of other ways to find useful information on the internet and of course there are dead tree books. Lately the wikimedia foundation just comes off as the whiny entitled rich kid who's upset that their parents only bought a brand new Acura instead of a Jaguar for their birthday. I'm not going to encourage the…
Me too. I don’t read Wikipedia articles and see links to Wikipedia as a sign of cluelessness. I downvote those who cite Wikipedia articles as if they were authoritative. When I was a teacher I would fail any paper that cited Wikipedia.
You can use Wikipedia all you want. But suggesting that there is no choice is ridiculous.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#45It's not exactly tolerated by Wikipedia community, see this discusssion:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost...
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#46Goodbye Hacker News. A bunch of extremely well-paid SWEs complain about donating two bucks to a completely free encyclopedia representing hundreds of thousands of volunteer human hours of effort; replacing (sorry, “disrupting”) extremely expensive Britannica books means to me the orange site has lost it’s way.
I think you might not understand the reason for the fundraising pushback.
I can try to summarize if you like, but it's probably explained elsewhere in this story's comments.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#471) You have surely heard, or perhaps have even said, "If you don't like it, don't use it."
2) What is the justification for NOT "tolerating" it beyond the "stop using it" or "stop donating to it" avenue? Is there a crime that should be reported?
3) Publish a story highlighting the problems. Several of these circulate periodically. The people who care about this already know it, and everyone else just ignores the banners.
4) Ads have ***destroyed*** the general web browsing user experience for anyone who isn't actively using adblockers. Why is that tolerated? Repeat exercise.
Humans. It's humans.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#48I’ve worked a lot with nonprofits. Having a pool of static funds available is not indicative of sustainability. If you are asking for funds only when you are running out, it is far too late for you.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#49I read this satirical thread about what would happen if Wikipedia didn't make money from donations and had to get acquired by a company like Comcast and thought, hm, I'd rather that not happen. I donate every year.
https://old.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2ov45h/wp_w...
Re: Ask HN: Why is the Wikipedia Foundation's begging tolerated?
#50You can login, opt out of the banner and it won't be shown to you anymore.
But to answer the question: because it's one of the few annoyances (and probably the only one) on that website. Other than the one month long banner I personally have no complains, Wikipedia is one of the best websites on the internet imo.