6 ms·

Remember that this is what your money funds when you donate to it...

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
inigyou 2mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C... No wonder they've upped the guilt tripping this year. Wikipedia has enough money right now to run Wikipedia forever but it keeps wasting it on useless stuff and feeling like it needs more. The WMF cannot fathom how to operate without continuous growing wastes of money, and without donations, Wikipedia would die within two years. We need to starve the beast so it learns to live frugally again. Jimmy needs his third yacht, dangit!
- PunchyHamster 2mo ago
  Feels like where Mozilla went
  - inigyou 2mo ago
    Great analogy.
- neilk 2mo ago
  I don’t know if you’re joking or not but of course Wales doesn’t profit directly from this. And, as a non-profit, compensation of executives is public knowledge. I believe Board members get zero compensation other than reimbursement for travel expenses. (Jimmy Wales did cash in on his reputation with some ads for luxury watches and idk what else he does for $). Salaries at the WMF have absolutely exploded, though they started out very low given the location and the talent base they were competing for. You probably want the WMF to be a somewhat competitive employer, and Silicon Valley salaries are also through the roof across the board. So those $400K executive salaries are (grating my teeth) vaguely justifiable. A volunteer-run page summarizes salary progression in key roles (up to 2024) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_salaries https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_salarie... So you can be assured your money isn’t going to the executives’ bank accounts, not directly anyway. However, this is precisely why non-profit organizations tend to get bloated. The executives can’t get away with a million dollar salaries and not other goodies like stock grants. But you can justify staffing up, which benefits the careers of the executives.
  - ethbr1 2mo ago
    What's up with the continually revolving CTO chair? (under Executive)
    - alephnerd 2mo ago
      Look at their salaries. Most are earning significantly less than what they would have earned in the for-profit sector for the same role in a significantly more stressful job. Compensation only started catching up in 2021-22 and even then is roughly comparable to what mid-career ICs now earn in the Bay, NYC, and Seattle.
      - ethbr1 2mo ago
        Salary aside, I'd still have assumed Wikimedia would be able to find a CTO who wouldn't jump ship the next year. Either they're really bad at picking, or the job is really bad.
        alephnerd 2mo ago
        > Either they're really bad at picking, or the job is really bad Def the latter in the sense that it is a very high stress job with weak compensation and high risk of being targeted.
  - mahkeiro 2mo ago
    What would justify Silicon Valley salary for an organization that can be based anywhere in the world? They are not doing advanced R&D, or product dev that would justify big numbers or a very specific set of skills.
    - alephnerd 2mo ago
      The same as any other organization - they would not be able to attract or afford the right talent. Also, these are not Silicon Valley numbers. Similar roles as those listed would pay 1.5-2x in the private sector here in the Bay. Even Wikipedia Foundation's European salaries [0] are well above market rate in the geos listed (Italy, Germany) [1][2]. > They are not doing advanced R&D, or product dev that would justify big numbers or a very specific set of skills Wikimedia's assets are some of the most heavily visited sites globally and are often a target for attacks (both nation state and independently led). It takes a nontrivial amount of effort to maintain a platform like Wikimedia's. [0] - https://www.levels.fyi/companies/wikimedia-foundation/salaries https://www.levels.fyi/companies/wikimedia-foundation/salari... [1] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/italy https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/italy [2] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/germany https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/germany
- ymolodtsov 2mo ago
  Seems it'd be far more reasonable to direct the excess funds into an endowment of sorts instead of spending it on other areas.
  - inigyou 2mo ago
    If they did that they'd already have a big enough endowment to fund all of Wikimedia for life.
    - akolbe 2mo ago
      Well, Wikimedia does have an Endowment, currently valued at $169 million. See Form 990: https://wikimediaendowment.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2024-Form-990-WEND-Public.pdf https://wikimediaendowment.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20... This is in addition to assets of around $300 million held by the Wikimedia Foundation. Form 990: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_2024_Form_990.pdf https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundat... For expenses breakdown see the most recent audited accounts: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimedia_Foundation_FY_24-25_Audit_Report.pdf&page=6 https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wiki...
      - ymolodtsov 2mo ago
        $169 million is not too big for an endowment, especially considering how much they had been raising AND spending in the years prior. Long-term it'd be best for Wikipedia if it was self-funded through this, like Harvard, for instance.
sassbadger 2mo ago
I have donated to them for many years and will stop now. I will not support any kind of union busting.
- inigyou 2mo ago
  Never too late to read WP:CANCER also.
  - moehm 2mo ago
    Here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C...
- TSiege 2mo ago
  Be sure to tell them why you stopped. I’ll be doing the same. Hopefully this pressures them to give up on this
  - juleiie 2mo ago
    [flagged]
    - nearlyepic 2mo ago
      > Don’t be afraid of destroying things. Wikipedia isn’t unique or precious really. Surely you’re joking?
      - applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
        Before LLMs, Wikipedia was the greatest source of misinformation in all of human history. It is at best good for satiating an idle curiosity with some plausible-sounding fun facts to amuse oneself with without care for whether they're really true or not, but so many people rely on it for so much more, and I have little doubt it causes more harm than good. Real encyclopedias with professional standards exist.
shevy-java 2mo ago
Some years ago, I think a french contributor pointed that out, aka asking why the wikimedia foundation wants so much money. Now the picture is getting more clear - denying a union is clearly big brother billionaire thinking, e. g. lowering cost while maximizing abuse of workers/employees.
- Jumpstylish 2mo ago
  I would be very surprised is WMF employee conditions would meet anyone’s definition of abuse. If anything, these sound like patronage jobs.
  - shimman 2mo ago
    [flagged]

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C... No wonder they've upped the guilt tripping this year. Wikipedia has enough money right now to run Wikipedia forever but it keeps wasting it on useless stuff and feeling like it needs more. The WMF cannot fathom how to operate without continuous growing wastes of money, and without donations, Wikipedia would die within two years. We need to starve the beast so it learns to live frugally again. Jimmy needs his third yacht, dangit!

PunchyHamster 2mo ago
Feels like where Mozilla went
- inigyou 2mo ago
  Great analogy.
neilk 2mo ago
I don’t know if you’re joking or not but of course Wales doesn’t profit directly from this. And, as a non-profit, compensation of executives is public knowledge. I believe Board members get zero compensation other than reimbursement for travel expenses. (Jimmy Wales did cash in on his reputation with some ads for luxury watches and idk what else he does for $). Salaries at the WMF have absolutely exploded, though they started out very low given the location and the talent base they were competing for. You probably want the WMF to be a somewhat competitive employer, and Silicon Valley salaries are also through the roof across the board. So those $400K executive salaries are (grating my teeth) vaguely justifiable. A volunteer-run page summarizes salary progression in key roles (up to 2024) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_salaries https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_salarie... So you can be assured your money isn’t going to the executives’ bank accounts, not directly anyway. However, this is precisely why non-profit organizations tend to get bloated. The executives can’t get away with a million dollar salaries and not other goodies like stock grants. But you can justify staffing up, which benefits the careers of the executives.
- ethbr1 2mo ago
  What's up with the continually revolving CTO chair? (under Executive)
  - alephnerd 2mo ago
    Look at their salaries. Most are earning significantly less than what they would have earned in the for-profit sector for the same role in a significantly more stressful job. Compensation only started catching up in 2021-22 and even then is roughly comparable to what mid-career ICs now earn in the Bay, NYC, and Seattle.
    - ethbr1 2mo ago
      Salary aside, I'd still have assumed Wikimedia would be able to find a CTO who wouldn't jump ship the next year. Either they're really bad at picking, or the job is really bad.
      - alephnerd 2mo ago
        > Either they're really bad at picking, or the job is really bad Def the latter in the sense that it is a very high stress job with weak compensation and high risk of being targeted.
- mahkeiro 2mo ago
  What would justify Silicon Valley salary for an organization that can be based anywhere in the world? They are not doing advanced R&D, or product dev that would justify big numbers or a very specific set of skills.
  - alephnerd 2mo ago
    The same as any other organization - they would not be able to attract or afford the right talent. Also, these are not Silicon Valley numbers. Similar roles as those listed would pay 1.5-2x in the private sector here in the Bay. Even Wikipedia Foundation's European salaries [0] are well above market rate in the geos listed (Italy, Germany) [1][2]. > They are not doing advanced R&D, or product dev that would justify big numbers or a very specific set of skills Wikimedia's assets are some of the most heavily visited sites globally and are often a target for attacks (both nation state and independently led). It takes a nontrivial amount of effort to maintain a platform like Wikimedia's. [0] - https://www.levels.fyi/companies/wikimedia-foundation/salaries https://www.levels.fyi/companies/wikimedia-foundation/salari... [1] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/italy https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/italy [2] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/germany https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/germany
ymolodtsov 2mo ago
Seems it'd be far more reasonable to direct the excess funds into an endowment of sorts instead of spending it on other areas.
- inigyou 2mo ago
  If they did that they'd already have a big enough endowment to fund all of Wikimedia for life.
  - akolbe 2mo ago
    Well, Wikimedia does have an Endowment, currently valued at $169 million. See Form 990: https://wikimediaendowment.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2024-Form-990-WEND-Public.pdf https://wikimediaendowment.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20... This is in addition to assets of around $300 million held by the Wikimedia Foundation. Form 990: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_2024_Form_990.pdf https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundat... For expenses breakdown see the most recent audited accounts: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimedia_Foundation_FY_24-25_Audit_Report.pdf&page=6 https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wiki...
    - ymolodtsov 2mo ago
      $169 million is not too big for an endowment, especially considering how much they had been raising AND spending in the years prior. Long-term it'd be best for Wikipedia if it was self-funded through this, like Harvard, for instance.

sassbadger 2mo ago

I have donated to them for many years and will stop now. I will not support any kind of union busting.

inigyou 2mo ago
Never too late to read WP:CANCER also.
- moehm 2mo ago
  Here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C...
TSiege 2mo ago
Be sure to tell them why you stopped. I’ll be doing the same. Hopefully this pressures them to give up on this
- juleiie 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - nearlyepic 2mo ago
    > Don’t be afraid of destroying things. Wikipedia isn’t unique or precious really. Surely you’re joking?
    - applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
      Before LLMs, Wikipedia was the greatest source of misinformation in all of human history. It is at best good for satiating an idle curiosity with some plausible-sounding fun facts to amuse oneself with without care for whether they're really true or not, but so many people rely on it for so much more, and I have little doubt it causes more harm than good. Real encyclopedias with professional standards exist.

shevy-java 2mo ago

Some years ago, I think a french contributor pointed that out, aka asking why the wikimedia foundation wants so much money. Now the picture is getting more clear - denying a union is clearly big brother billionaire thinking, e. g. lowering cost while maximizing abuse of workers/employees.

Jumpstylish 2mo ago
I would be very surprised is WMF employee conditions would meet anyone’s definition of abuse. If anything, these sound like patronage jobs.
- shimman 2mo ago
  [flagged]