I can see them exaggerating, and using extreme pathos to convince you, in a mere dialog, of the need for donations.
At worst, yes, their pleas could mislead the naïve. But they are extremely careful in their wording, and if they were outright lying, then they would suffer for it, perhaps even legally.
It's interesting, because many of the dialogs I see here are actually appealing to people who read Wikipedia the most (and don't edit it.) So I would say that's a good and targeted appeal to the freeloaders.
I am open to correction on this: if you can find a dialog from WMF that outright lied and told a falsehood about a material fact, then show it to us, and prove the fact. As we say, [citation needed].
The impression they give about needing money is wrong. They intend to give that impression. It’s lying.
I think Wikipedia should go away. The entire philosophy is wrong. It’s a toxic mess. But until it does, I don’t see any problem with punishing it by visiting its pages.
Of course they need money. They have operating costs, salaries, rents, contracts to pay. You're the liar if you say that an organization doesn't need money to keep operating.
Anyone who visits WMF's servers and uses their websites without donating or volunteering is a freeloader, and you are a net drain on WMF's resources. That's why the most donation dialogs appear to people who visit frequently.
They don't "need" your five-dollar donation, because they have other donors. If 100% of their donors decided WMF didn't "need" any money and they all withdrew their donations, WMF would quickly implode. Perhaps you could convince everyone to do so!
I can see them exaggerating, and using extreme pathos to convince you, in a mere dialog, of the need for donations.
At worst, yes, their pleas could mislead the naïve. But they are extremely careful in their wording, and if they were outright lying, then they would suffer for it, perhaps even legally.
It's interesting, because many of the dialogs I see here are actually appealing to people who read Wikipedia the most (and don't edit it.) So I would say that's a good and targeted appeal to the freeloaders.
I am open to correction on this: if you can find a dialog from WMF that outright lied and told a falsehood about a material fact, then show it to us, and prove the fact. As we say, [citation needed].
I'll start you with a helpful image search: https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&sca_esv=558977329&...