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Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

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Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#241
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia is full of the kind of stuff mainstream payment processors balk at, so they might have to use a higher risk processor with higher fees.

Easily Checked: Wikimedia accepts Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Check, ACH and Money Order. Pretty hard to argue that mainstream processors don't like them. Processors charge higher fees to merchants that are in lines of business with high fraud and chargeback risk, has nothing to do with whether they agree with them morally. They refuse merchants with business they don't like. If it were the…

> I can't imagine that wikipedia has high chargeback rates, and clearly the processors don't mind doing business with them.

Its actually somewhat common for people who steal credit cards to use non profits like wikipedia to "test" them. Typically such sites have no minimum donation, have donations from all over the world so fraud detection wont think its weird you're spending money half way across the world.

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#242
post #3

I'll go out on a limb and say we _need_ Wikipedia and it's okay that traffic falls. Physical print encyclopedias got replaced by Wikipedia, but AI isn't a replacement (can't ever see how either). While AI is a method of easier access for the end user, the purpose of Wikipedia stands on its own. I've always scoffed at the Wikimedia Foundation's warchest and continuously increasing annual spending. I say now is the tim…

Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.

Sounds like you're either a Wikipedia landlord or don't use it for anything other than STEM articles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contentious_topics

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, any writes are reverted within seconds by the gatekeepers, but sure, ok.

Of the dozens of contributions I've made over the decades, some recent, either zero or one of them have been reverted.

I have contributed inconsequential lies to clown on a friend and they persisted for years.

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#244

i feel like there's a postivie-sum game where the AI companies should start heavily subsidizing wikipedia. wikipedia gets money to stay afloat, ai companies continue to get access to their huge human-curated knowledge graph.

WMF only spends a couple million on essentials like hosting though. They have over 700 employees, and their budget is pretty bloated with thing that aren't really related to running Wikipedia, including sizeable grants to other organizations. See their org chart [1] or this classic essay [2].

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Organiz...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C...

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it's a horribly boring "read" when it comes to human consumption. I couldn't possibly disagree more. The website I visit most often after Reddit and HN is Wikipedia, and I often spend hours just diving through article after article. Learning facts is fun .

Learning facts is extremely fun. It's just not fun reading them as a list of facts. I am not a computer. I enjoy reading prose.

> prose

I must be reading a different Wikipedia, then, because all the articles I read are prose, rather than a bulleted list of facts as you claim.

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#246
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't seem interested in this. Their revenue is more than enough be able to invest and sustain the site forever, but they just increase expenses on non-core outgoings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CANCER

Am I misssing something or is Wikipedia net positive 200M? If this is true, that's eye opening. Weird given how much they beg for money on every article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statisti...

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, any writes are reverted within seconds by the gatekeepers, but sure, ok.

Of the dozens of contributions I've made over the decades, some recent, either zero or one of them have been reverted.

Or you could make significant contributions, then get banned because of ignorant sociopaths like BrownHairedGirl and her coterie of followers.

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craftsmen care about what they make, pursuing excellence even if it may take generations. Businessmen care about robbing you now in the most efficient way.

Efficient robbery is a craft too, just not one you (or most people) appreciate.

Now there you Ninja Academy guys go again...

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#249
post #3

I'll go out on a limb and say we _need_ Wikipedia and it's okay that traffic falls. Physical print encyclopedias got replaced by Wikipedia, but AI isn't a replacement (can't ever see how either). While AI is a method of easier access for the end user, the purpose of Wikipedia stands on its own. I've always scoffed at the Wikimedia Foundation's warchest and continuously increasing annual spending. I say now is the tim…

I think Wikimedia needs expensive outreach and modernisation to stay relevant. And most of those attempts will be in vain. A poor comparison is how much money coca cola spends on advertisement, even though it is one of the best known brands in the entire world. And most of their advertisement is simply "This is our name, we exists", not even a value proposition or call to action. If Wikimedia sets themselves up to pa…

The WMF Australia gets a lot of money, but has barely any members. They have no intention of recruiting more.

Re: Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

#250
post #206
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retained earnings are not taxed per se. A company pays taxes on profits. Whether the profits are distributed to shareholders or retained makes no difference whatsoever as far as taxes are concerned.

They are taxed; they are taxed because they are a subset of profits, which is a taxed category. They are not taxed more than other profits, but that doesn’t mean they’re ’not taxed’.

they are not

retained earnings by definition are the accumulation of net incomes, and net income by definition is post tax

what went into the produce the retained earnings (profit) has been taxed

but the retained earnings themselves are not subject to additional taxation (with a few exceptions)

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