• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • From your source: "After a decade of professional fund-raising, it has now amassed $400 million of cash as of March”.

    From you: “they have at least 400 million in reserves now”.

    Their financial audit, that I linked to, shows that they have nowhere near that much cash. They don’t even have that much total assets if you count their endowment, real estate, and computer hardware.

    The entire reason for my comment was that I read that number, thought “wow, that number seems preposterous”, and looked up their financial report which shows that indeed, it’s a totally bogus number detached from reality.

    You seem deeply upset that someone might not just accept your opinion at face value, and it seems to be making you respond like an asshole instead of “not responding because you don’t care”, or actually giving some sort of response.




  • Check engine light? That’s fine, if it goes wrong it’s just him. The high beams are dangerous, inconsiderate and just a dick move, but also something that could be done by mistake.

    Flagrantly violating traffic control signs is dangerous to him, anyone in his vehicle, other drivers, and random passerbys. That’s a pretty big no-no, and worth reporting in the harshest terms on its own.

    Would you have wanted previous riders to have reported that behavior before you got in the car? If you knew they were going to drive like that would you still have picked them as a driver?
    If not, why would you let someone else be in the same situation you would take steps to avoid?



  • Looking at the profiles for the executives, you definitely get the feeling that they’re either the sort that prioritizes “my work put good into the world and you don’t need to squint to see it” over cash, so “yeah, that lets me live” is sufficient, or their seemingly going for a high score for number of “oh, nice!” organizations they can put on their CV, and the total compensation from them all is probably more than competitive.


  • first article that popped up with reliable numbera

    Except…the numbers weren’t reliable. Where did they get $400 million in cash from? That’s just not a thing.

    $100 million is purely cash on hand, it doesn’t take into account any otger WMF assets.

    It’s $80 million cash, $274M counting all assets, like it says in the audit and my comment.

    unsurprisingly, the WMF reports that WMF are spending their money responsibly and are barely managing to sustain themselves

    Are you saying that their financial audit is fraudulent? “Wikipedia is committing tax fraud” is a pretty hot take, not gonna lie.
    Their financial report also doesn’t claim they’re barely scraping by, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that.

    Wikipedia has plenty of money, they spend it irresponsibly

    That’s a different argument which you seemingly haven’t actually argued. “They make enough money, here’s some incorrect financial claims to justify it” is very different from “I don’t think they spend money wisely, and need to change what they spend on”.

    it’s nice that you’re excited about Wikipedia, and it can be a useful resource, but these are not contentious facts.

    I never actually made a statement for or against donation, I only pointed out that your information was incorrect. “$400 million cash” is a very different situation than “$80 million cash”.
    I’m gonna disagree very strongly that these are “not contentious facts”, because they’re not correct in the slightest. Being off by $320 million dollars strongly undercuts the credibility of an argument.

    Honestly, I’m confused about why you seem so angry at Wikipedia.

    Yes, I am ageist about facts. What a weird thing to take issue with. The financial state of an organization two years ago doesn’t have as much bearing on if they should get donations as the current financial statement does.
    Does this financial statement from 2006 feel just as relevant and make you want to donate to them?

    That article is at least accurate in how it describes their financial situation. It’s also kind of amusing that the author concludes that donation is reasonable:

    So, bottom line: Should someone with financial means donate when they see Wikipedia’s banner ads running in December? It depends. In my view, people who volunteer a lot of time improving Wikipedia’s content have already made their “gift” and should feel no obligation. For everyone else, the calculus is personal. One volunteer suggested donating to smaller but allied organizations like OpenStreetMap, which provides map data that is used for Wikipedia pages. Other contributors said that even if Wikipedia is only indirectly supported by the WMF, the WMF is still the best-positioned organization to advance free knowledge overall by virtue of its scale and connections.

    Clearly, Wikipedians are right to engage in vigorous discussion about how donations are solicited from visitors and to oversee how those funds are actually spent. For me, there’s also the small matter of the external environment. In recent years, Wikipedia has been attacked by authoritarian regimes and powerful billionaires—people who do not necessarily benefit from the free flow of neutral information. If $3 helps hold them off, then that’s coffee money well spent.







  • Depends on jurisdiction, but in a fair number it would be “menacing”.

    A person is guilty of menacing when by some movement of body or any instrument the person intentionally places another person in fear of imminent physical injury.

    That’s Delaware’s, but different states do it differently, and some out that classification under stalking.

    Following someone around intentionally and knowingly causing them fear of injury is illegal. Why on earth would you even for a moment think you’re allowed to do that? It’s like thinking guns are legal so you can point your gun at someone on the street.