6 ms·

Goodbye Hacker News. A bunch of extremely well-paid SWEs complain about donating two bucks to a completely free encyclopedia representing hundreds of thousands

• CoastalCoder 4y ago
  I think you might not understand the reason for the fundraising pushback. I can try to summarize if you like, but it's probably explained elsewhere in this story's comments.
• tyingq 4y ago
  An item hitting the front page doesn't mean anything like "most people here agree with the premise". Just that they find the content potentially interesting to see, discuss, debate, etc.
  • jorvi 4y ago
    That would hold merit if I wouldn’t regularly see people’s insightful comments sent deep into greyed-out oblivion because they went against the grain of the echo chamber. Be it here, on Reddit, or any site with a content voting system, the vote buttons always end up being ‘this is what I could have said’ and ‘get bent’ buttons. Funnily enough, imageboards seem to have it figured out: post something interesting, your thread or comment gets engaged. Post drivel - everyone ignores you. Meritocracy.
• mardifoufs 4y ago
  The pushback is very present amongst Wikipedians editors too, you know, the people actually writing the encyclopedia. But I guess software engineers on hacker news know better and can just handwave the issue because it makes them feel better to think that their donation is useful.
• geocrasher 4y ago
  How long have you been reading HN? What makes you think everyone here is an "extremely well-paid SWE"? Have you not read the threads such as "Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22442454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22442454 This is a discussion forum, not a blog.
• constantcrying 4y ago
  [flagged]
  • seattle_spring 4y ago
    Supporting charitable giving is what qualifies as an "awful organization" nowadays?
    • constantcrying 4y ago
      Donate to a real charity instead of the intransparent mess which is the Wikimedia foundation. It is an awful charity from any point of view, your money does not go to Wikipedia (the website), in fact it just enters a web of different undisclosed charities.
    • charcircuit 4y ago
      Yes. People who want to fund wikipedia should be able to fund wikipedia itself.
• blowski 4y ago
  Goodbye :wave:
• Hello71 4y ago
  what percentage of the money actually goes to the volunteers?
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• mattlondon 4y ago
  Not everyone here is a silicon valley millionaire. Sure there are some, but there are many who are not. Some are even from developing nations where a few USD represents a significant amount of money. I think the core of the argument is that they don't need the money, but act like they do to keep the site running but actually run a huge surplus.
• klabb3 4y ago
  Do these volunteers get a share of the donations? > the orange site has lost it’s way You can change the color in account preferences to any hex color you want. Jokes aside, I don’t know whether the criticism is valid, but aren’t we all here to find out? Or disagree?
• jmfldn 4y ago
  Wikipedia is a rare living embodiment of everything the web can be at its best. I consider my recurring payment to them a form of public duty.
• hacknewslogin 4y ago
  I'm an underpaid inspector with heavy ADHD. At this point I feel like my chances of breaking into the tech industry are a pipedream. I still enjoy hacker news, especially since I can access it at work.
• no_time 4y ago
  >Goodbye Hacker News. See you tomorrow
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• hbrn 4y ago
  > bunch of extremely well-paid SWEs complain about donating two bucks to a completely free encyclopedia You are NOT donating to free encyclopedia. You are donating to their parent company, which spends fraction of your donations on the encyclopedia, the rest goes to other questionable causes. That what bothers everybody.
• KomoD 4y ago
  Bye bye! You are delusional if you believe everyone is a well-paid SWE