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> they realized they had no idea how to monetize the content This sort of thing should be a nonprofit. When it was good, it was literally making the world a b
by RajT88 3y ago
> they realized they had no idea how to monetize the content
This sort of thing should be a nonprofit. When it was good, it was literally making the world a better place.
Possibly the Library of Congress would be a good steward for such a platform. Something to make it resistant to enshittification.
- fullshark 3y agoHow about Wikimedia?
- ivanmontillam 3y agoWikimedia is a non-profit that operates like a for-profit when the yearly round of donations comes around. They literally hoard money[0]. I will get downvoted for this, but it's my perception. -- [0]: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wikipedia-millions-bank-beg/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wikipedia-millions-bank-beg/
- _Algernon_ 3y ago>I will get downvoted for this, but it's my perception. I will always downvote a comment when someone writes something like this. It is irrelevant to the conversation and screams insecurity.
- njharman 3y ago100%
- SantalBlush 3y agoIt's also tinged with a "People can't handle the based truth I'm laying down" attitude, which is annoying to read.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- gn4d 3y agoBased. It is r*ddit-tier passive aggression. This place is not much better, but we should still resist this type of crap when we can.
- coldtea 3y agoDownvoted your comment immediately, as unnecessary and hostile. Parent just made a comment that knew would be unpopular and expressed that.
- egberts1 3y agoThat's so Reddit, this here is Hacker News.
- seadan83 3y agoInteresting reference. Non profits cannot hoard money. I believe it becomes taxable and they can lose their non profit status (i am not an expert) Though, hoarding seems like a mischaracterization. Per the article linked, the cash burn rate is on the order of $100M/yr, having $150M in the bank is 18 months worth of funding. The biggest gripe I read in the article is the "high" expenditure rate and how necessary it is. It seems like reasonable people may disagree on whether that spend rate is excessive. If the expenditure rate were lower, I'd agree it would be hoarding.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- fallingknife 3y agoI guess I can't see the reasonable argument that it is necessary when you look at the growth rate of their spending. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has... If they kept expenditures low and hoarded, I would actually be fine with that and happy to contribute. I see nothing wrong with forming a large endowment for a project like Wikipedia.
- lupire 3y agoCitation needed for your claim about hoarding money, which is refuted by simple observation of the many, many endowments that exist.
- seadan83 3y agoI was confused about another situation - I was quite sure about this - and was incorrect. This speaks to the benefits of speaking from data and not just what you think the data was. Thank you for calling me out here, it was merited and the info was bad.
- HillRat 3y agoThere are no limits on a nonprofit's ability to raise and maintain cash reserves; there are limits on how and to whom funds can be disbursed and (to a lesser extent) the kinds of activities that can be used to generate funds. But a nonprofit can sit on an endlessly-growing hoard of cash if that's what they (and their donors) want to do.
- rospaya 3y agoI'm fine with that.
- FireBeyond 3y ago> the yearly round of donations comes around The what? I cannot visit Wikipedia without seeing a donate bar, even when I close it every time. "Year-round" maybe.
- Karellen 3y agoOne person's hoard is another person's endowment. To-mah-to, to-may-to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment
- BlueTemplar 3y agoWikimedia is not a platform. Their sister Wikicities / Wikia / Fandom (also relying on MediaWiki), and now owned by Texas Pacific Group, is however, another example of a platform getting enshittified.
- account42 3y agoYeah, was surprised to find out that that shithole was actually founded and lead by Jimmy Wales and not some random unrelated parasite.
- allenrb 3y agoAgreed re: being a non-profit. My great hope was that Elon might do that with Twitter. Needless to say, I was… not right about that.
- ethbr1 3y agoArguably, prelon Twitter was not-for-profit.
- marcusb 3y agoPost Elon, they are not-turning-a-profit.
- prepend 3y agoAre their losses greater or less than pre purchase. I know revenue is down, but I wonder how the cost cuts affected margin.
- simonw 3y agoThey made a profit in 2018 and 2019 ($1.2bn and $1.45bn according to SEC filings) but not in any other year.
- Aeolun 3y agoPresumably they could have done Elon’s massive firing spree at any point in time and become profitable overnight?
- StackRanker3000 3y agoDon’t forget the massive amount of new debt that needs servicing.
- miohtama 3y agoThey will, but it would likely need restructuring the debts and the cap table, and would not be Elon's Twitter anymore.
- boringuser2 3y agoYou're going to entrust making the world a better place to... the US government?
- stevage 3y agoSure. Much better than to VC backed startups anyway.
- boringuser2 3y agoWe're going to have to agree to disagree. The US has done terrible things in the too-recent future in the explicit name of making the world a better place. At least, that rationale triggers my gag reflex.
- Aeolun 3y agoIsn’t a lot of what the US government does decided by capital anyway?
- boringuser2 3y agoKind of. There is a lot of money in lobbying for certain things. Companies generally don't want political outcomes per se via lobbying outside of their own niche interests. Much more impactful are dedicated lobby groups. For exmaple, there's a particular country that I'm not allowed to mention here under duress of being banned that has a lot of moneyed lobbying.
- Solvency 3y agoLike when the sugar industry lobbied and the US government told everyone fat is bad for 50 years?
- ruszki 3y agoDid the government say that sugar is good?
- edgyquant 3y agoHow exactly was quora ever making the world a better place?