Jimmy Wales’ Final Email • Hacker News Board

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#11

Post by 3maj » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:44 PM UTC

avalys wrote: post #2

A nonprofit using tricks to get your attention as they ask for donations? Say it isn’t so! In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying .

To be fair, this is one of the few non-profits that benefits most people and that is actually used day-to-day by the majority of people with an internet connection.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#12

Post by busterarm » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

I swear I googled to see if Jimmy Wales died first before reading this post.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#13

Post by voz_ » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

cyounkins wrote: post #9

avalys wrote: post #2

A nonprofit using tricks to get your attention as they ask for donations? Say it isn’t so! In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying .

With NPR, does the aggressiveness match the need?

NPR has become a race baiting mouthpiece, sadly. The quality of the overall programming has sharply declined over the last 10 years. No more driveway moments for me.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#14

Post by 8260337551 » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

Infrastructure isn’t free. Happy to donate to Wikipedia on a yearly basis. And the emails are only once a year.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#15

Post by david_allison » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

simonswords82 wrote: post #4

What to do with a problem like Wikipedia. It’s ultimately a fantastic source of information like nothing else on the internet. That has to be worth something right? Problem is that people probably don’t bother to donate as much as they could or should. I know I haven’t donated. Is there another way it could be monetised without ads?

They're moving into selling access to structured data APIs.

$50k/year for their mid-tier offering. "Contact us" after that.

https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/

https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/pricing/

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#16

Post by nsonha » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

phew, the title made me think something happened to Jimmy

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#17

Post by cyounkins » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

wly_cdgr wrote: post #7

Wikipedia is far and away the most valuable project the world has ever seen and this guy is complaining about donation emails?

Yes. As I wrote, I have donated to Wikipedia and love the project. I think the methods they use to solicit donations undermines their trustworthiness.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#18

Post by rich_sasha » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

What are their expenses btw? Are their hosting costs so high? Do they have paid staff beyond some fairly trivial admin? Do they curate articles for cash?

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#19

Post by djbusby » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

voz_ wrote: post #13

cyounkins wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With NPR, does the aggressiveness match the need?

NPR has become a race baiting mouthpiece, sadly. The quality of the overall programming has sharply declined over the last 10 years. No more driveway moments for me.

Car Talk tho.

Re: Jimmy Wales’ Final Email

#20

Post by wyager » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 6:47 PM UTC

8260337551 wrote: post #14

Infrastructure isn’t free. Happy to donate to Wikipedia on a yearly basis. And the emails are only once a year.

Wikimedia spends like 95% of their money on stuff that isn’t Wikipedia. They’re a classic bloated NGO, where they have some initial mission they can do efficiently but they keep asking for money way down the diminishing returns curve.