7 ms·

I have no connection to and don't know Wikimedia Foundation, and the context for these references is not totally clear. (Maybe it was related to these https://m

I have no connection to and don't know Wikimedia Foundation, and the context for these references is not totally clear. (Maybe it was related to these https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20/Events https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20/Events.) Regardless, do you really begrudge the CEO visiting these places? I get where you're coming from: it's easy to roll your eyes and dismiss this kind of thing as political correctness, pointless "diversity and inclusion" work, pandering to liberal friends etc. But step back: Wikipedia aims to be the world's encyclopedia. I'm as much in awe as anyone of what a fairly narrow group of pretty obsessive contributors has been able to achieve (I just checked: I've made five tiny edits in 15 years, so not me). But Wikipedia will never succeed in its aim unless it has active contributors in places like Accra, Berlin and Chandigarh. I honestly don't remember what the donation banners have said in past years. Did they imply they were funding servers and bandwidth only? Maybe they did. But if you actually believe in the mission of Wikipedia, you have to consider that servers and bandwidth will not be enough and that community—maybe including the odd party—is a core part of it. In that respect, I'm not sure it's too helpful to lump it with Mozilla.

iso8859-1 6y ago
Wikipedia doesn't need that kind of attention. Writing for Wikipedia is like journalism, it is not automatically better just because you have more eyeballs. What kind of people do you want to attract? Do you think the best writers are attracted by the best parties? Wikipedia has loads of contributors in Germany. That is because of a long history of German intellectualism, it is not because Wikimedia is throwing parties. If Wikimedia were as global as you suggest, where are the parties in Iran and Russia? Are these parties without alcohol? I hope so, because we wouldn't want to exclude the muslim world, right? I say this as a Wikipedia contributor since 2005 with 16k edits.
- foolmeonce 6y ago
  > Are these parties without alcohol? I hope so, because we wouldn't want to exclude the muslim world, right? What? They aren't a fraternity, so I don't think drinking is mandatory. If you look at any large organization it has these kinds of frivolous events. Among other things, they let the leadership get a sense of the social environment and how it reacts to some of their ideas with less filtering. I personally don't attend most of these events, but it is really a silly direction to assume everything that is not technically necessary is a waste of money.
  - fastball 6y ago
    Most large orgs don't beg for my money after I've already given them my time for free though.
    - Clewza313 6y ago
      Wikimedia is free for its users and doesn't do ads, you need to pay the server bills and find development somehow.
      - m3at 6y ago
        It absolutely does, and Wikipedia gets my donation yearly for that. However there are legitimate questions about how much/few of that is dedicated to its core tasks: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has...
      - fastball 6y ago
        Right, it is not like most large orgs. So the excuse "most large orgs throw parties" is not a good one, imo. Though tbh "other orgs do it" is never a good argument, but it is especially bad here.
        Clewza313 6y ago
        I've attended a bunch of Wikimedia/Wikimania conferences. These are held on a shoestring budget, and any drinking and dancing is on participants' own dime. WMF's per-employee T&E cost is apparently $7k/year. Working in sales at a company you've heard of, I've flown single flights and attended single dinners that cost more than that.
        fastball 6y ago
        Yes, except WMF should not be doing sales. They're an online wikipedia. Their costs keep ballooning, and not to pay for things that I care about when I donate money to support their core mission.

iso8859-1 6y ago

Wikipedia doesn't need that kind of attention. Writing for Wikipedia is like journalism, it is not automatically better just because you have more eyeballs. What kind of people do you want to attract? Do you think the best writers are attracted by the best parties? Wikipedia has loads of contributors in Germany. That is because of a long history of German intellectualism, it is not because Wikimedia is throwing parties. If Wikimedia were as global as you suggest, where are the parties in Iran and Russia? Are these parties without alcohol? I hope so, because we wouldn't want to exclude the muslim world, right? I say this as a Wikipedia contributor since 2005 with 16k edits.

foolmeonce 6y ago
> Are these parties without alcohol? I hope so, because we wouldn't want to exclude the muslim world, right? What? They aren't a fraternity, so I don't think drinking is mandatory. If you look at any large organization it has these kinds of frivolous events. Among other things, they let the leadership get a sense of the social environment and how it reacts to some of their ideas with less filtering. I personally don't attend most of these events, but it is really a silly direction to assume everything that is not technically necessary is a waste of money.
- fastball 6y ago
  Most large orgs don't beg for my money after I've already given them my time for free though.
  - Clewza313 6y ago
    Wikimedia is free for its users and doesn't do ads, you need to pay the server bills and find development somehow.
    - m3at 6y ago
      It absolutely does, and Wikipedia gets my donation yearly for that. However there are legitimate questions about how much/few of that is dedicated to its core tasks: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has...
    - fastball 6y ago
      Right, it is not like most large orgs. So the excuse "most large orgs throw parties" is not a good one, imo. Though tbh "other orgs do it" is never a good argument, but it is especially bad here.
      - Clewza313 6y ago
        I've attended a bunch of Wikimedia/Wikimania conferences. These are held on a shoestring budget, and any drinking and dancing is on participants' own dime. WMF's per-employee T&E cost is apparently $7k/year. Working in sales at a company you've heard of, I've flown single flights and attended single dinners that cost more than that.
        fastball 6y ago
        Yes, except WMF should not be doing sales. They're an online wikipedia. Their costs keep ballooning, and not to pay for things that I care about when I donate money to support their core mission.