Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Jwarder 1339 days ago
Weird, I haven't seen any recent banners frame it in terms of demise of Wikipedia. The urgent banners I've seen are about the time to complete the fund drive. Along the lines of: If X% of users paid $Y then the goal would be reached in Z minutes.

If you assume the fund drive exists to help keep the lights on then I think it is natural to treat it as an existential issue for Wikipedia, but that doesn't seem to match the specific language used.
2 comments
akolbe 1339 days ago
This is just another psychological trick. They vastly exceed even their own revenue targets. Compare goals and results:

2020/2021 revenue goal: $108M, increased to $125M, total at end of year: $154M

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikim...

2021/2022 revenue target: $150M, already exceeded by end of quarter 3, weeks before the start of the fundraiser in India, South Africa and South America:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AF%26A...

link
otherme123 1339 days ago
The banner shown in the article has a subtle tone of demise: if you don't donate, Wikipedia itself stops being independent, could not thrive, could not give reliable or independent info. And then the money is primarily spent in things other than Wikipedia. They never state or at least insinuate where the money go.
link
gibolt 1339 days ago
This sounds like the exact CTA of countless YouTubers asking for Patreon support. No level of coffers or ever increasing support changes their ask. (which to me is ok)
link
jerf 1338 days ago
Patreon supporters generally know where their money is going: Straight into the YouTuber's (or whatever) pocket. That's the goal of the contributor and there's generally no particular deception on the YouTuber's part either. I want to give them $5 even if they already have a lot of other $5, because that's the value I'm getting or whatever.

I agree with others that Wikipedia very carefully makes it sound like they've got a sob story where if you don't donate they're going to shut down, so they probably get a lot of donations made with the belief that they're funding Wikipedia, but instead it gets shunted out to something else. Maybe something the donor is OK with, but maybe something not.

link
ztgasdf 1338 days ago
The difference is that most YouTubers are leagues smaller than Wikipedia. The message is the same but the context is wildly different.
link