Wikipedia Has 10 Times More Money Than Needed, But Authors See None of It
It's been revealed that despite having 10 times more money than needed, very little of it goes towards improving Wikipedia itself or rewarding its authors - sparking outrage among many who feel these contributors should be compensated for their work on pages within the online encyclopedia platform
Dec. 25, 2022 12:31PM
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A hand holding up a sign reading "Pay Wiki Authors Now"
In a shocking revelation, it has been revealed that the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia has ten times more money than it needs. Despite this, very little of the money goes towards improving the encyclopedia itself and none of it goes to its authors. This has caused many to question why the Wikimedia Foundation is collecting donations when they already have more than enough funds. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects such as Wiktionary and Wikibooks. They are funded by donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. The foundation states on their website that “all donations are used for our mission: empowering and engaging people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain”. However, according to reports, only about 4% of their total revenue goes towards content creation while the rest is spent on administrative costs such as salaries for staff members. This news has sparked outrage among some who feel that authors should be compensated for their work on Wikipedia pages since they are not paid directly by the foundation. Many have taken to social media to express their frustration with this issue using hashtags like #WikimediaGrift and #PayWikiAuthorsNow. Others have accused the foundation of “panhandling” in order to support its ever-growing bureaucracy rather than helping those who actually contribute content to its platform. The Wikimedia Foundation has yet to comment on these allegations but some believe that if they truly want to empower people around the world with free knowledge then they should be putting more effort into compensating those who make it possible in the first place - namely its authors. Until then, many will continue questioning where all this extra money is going if not towards improving Wikipedia itself or rewarding those who help make it happen day after day without any financial compensation whatsoever.