Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia

I'm kinda in awe how Elon finds every day new ways to be a utter and complete piece of shit.

I'm not, only because I've never once been in awe of any damn thing that piece of shit has ever ~~done~~ stolen credit for, and don't intend to start now.
It's a super power. No ordinary person could do it this much.
- No ordinary has enough free time to even attempt it!

Won't somebody rid us of this meddlesome billionaire?
- TBH i think we need Mario for this one
- He is rather turbulent
Nah, too basic and low-tech. He deserves nothing less than a drone strike
- Ya he needs one of those knife missles we usually reserve for “terrorists”
Gonna need Mario for that

Time to annually donate to wikipedia.

You know, I do usually, but now I'm going to go monthly.
- Been monthly for years. I truly believe it is the most important thing humanity has ever built. Nothing has done more to make knowledge accessible.
I donated once this month already but I'll fucking do it again.

Crowdsourced information does put a bit of a damper on the whole “history written by the victors” thing.

Elon takes aim and the media are right there to make his job easier. Thank goodness there's reporting on everything he wants.

Guy who owns biased platform claims other platform that has negative views on him is biased. Someone tell Elon that if he donates enough he can have controlling shares of Wiki. He can't, but he doesn't have to know that.

Well, I hate to admit it, but I've never donated to Wikipedia.

But this just made me set up a recurring donation. Streisand effect sorta, I guess.

Fuck Elon Musk.

(and control what it says)
He's being filed by a constant stream of validation from musk simps, yes men, now the next POTUS, so he thinks he's unstoppable.

Ah yes, any platform that may contradict his obvious attempt to dominate America through propaganda must be removed.

This is why billionaires shouldn't exist.

If only someone would make them not exist.
Elon’s a pretty public guy, right?

Mmm,

Mmhmm

Oh

Musk's actions and expressed views have made him a polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation; affirming antisemitic and transphobic comments, and promoting conspiracy theories. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial because of the layoffs of a large number of employees, an increase in posts containing hate speech, misinformation and disinformation on the website, and changes to website features, including verification.

Ah, that’s probably why. People are allowed to expose him without being censored on wiki.

"Wikipedia is built on the premise that it becomes better when more people of different backgrounds—including political persuasions—source, edit, curate and research content. Our equity goal advances that. The 'Safety & Inclusion' goal (now titled 'Safety & Integrity' in our 2024-2025 plan) is focused on ensuring that people are able to freely access and safely contribute to knowledge on Wikipedia in a changing legal and policy environment globally."

Magoo: RAAAAGGGGEEEEE!!! WHITE CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS are the only REAL people!! WE'RE the only people that matter!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources
I just read that list. How many conservative sources are listed as "Reliable Sources" I see Reason, but I'm not sure I'd consider them conservative.
- Not their fault conservatives lie and generally contradict even themselves.
- Reliable sources means outlets that don't outright lie or over embellish. I think you'll find that most conservative media outlets tend to do exactly those two things. And I would 100% count both Reason and The Hill as conservative media outlets that walk the fine line.

Made a donation just to spite him. Fuck you Elon.

I actually wasn't going to donate to Wikipedia this year because I'm pretty strapped but fuck it. I'm donating more than I did last year I can put more stuff on a credit card this season instead.

Fuck Elon Musk. And fuck anyone who buys his stupid fucking cars.

Right on. Consider also contributing to an article. Volunteers work tirelessly to filter the misinformation pushed by stakeholders like Elon Musk and the army he can afford to employ to fuck up articles full-time.

I donate $20 every year, but I also donate again whenever this goof makes headlines going after Wikipedia. Feels good. Fuck you, cunt.

Thank you for donating!

So I just donated to Wikipedia.

~~The reaction to this completely neutral article says it all. Right-wing snowflakes gonna ❄️.~~

Edit: Or not... see @ChairmanMeow's response.

Btw.
In January 2024, David Rozado, an associate professor in computational science at New Zealand's Otago Polytechnic, published a study that found: "Wikipedia was more likely to portray right-leaning figures negatively than their left-leaning counterparts."
The real question is not whether Wikipedia is biased, but whether it's fair. In politics not everybody is equally right. And there are some real shit heads on the right. In other words Elon Musk is not entitled to a positive Wikipedia page.
I think this is just a case of unclear UI. This is the default stance of the meter, before you've entered a vote. After you vote it shows the most common answer underneath the meter.
I voted just now, and the most common vote was "fair/center".
Note how the needle is also off the meter, instead of pointing at one of the segments.
- wow that is truly awful UI you’re right
- The "Every article is written by Vladimir Lenin until proven otherwise" approach.
- Thanks for your reply. That's a really bad design.

Now they're openly admiting that they're against everything that makes the live better for everyone? Has the brainwashing succeeded?

Now they’re openly admiting that they’re against everything that makes the live better for everyone?
always have been
A better life is a "woke" idea.

Donated as well. Fuck Musk.

I donated to Wikipedia for the first time because fuck that guy.

Same

This parasite is doing his best to lead humanity further down the path of annihilation. He needs to go.

If you didn't buy a bunch of hard drives on Black Friday, ya probably should've.

Information is about to get restricted. Authoritarianism is coming down the pipes.

Buckle up, buttercup. Encrypt that shit and hang on.

Just like he's increasing Secular Talk viewership he's also increasing Wikipedia donations.

I hope lots of folks also download copies of Wikipedia, just in case. Elon is a sore loser type with too much money and free time.

Oh, that reminds me I have to renew my donation.

i don't get what problem you would have about "bias" over wikipedia if you care about the truth and facts.

just kind of exposes what it's really about for musk.

I donated to Wikipedia once before, but never again. Their endowment has grown to a level where they should be completely self-sustained. However, spending is out of control.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_Cancer

Edit: I'm glad Wikipedia exists, but to say they are hurting for more cash is completely false. Even according to their own financial disclosures, web hosting expenses have stabilized under $4-million a year (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation). As contributions continue to grow, it is spent on higher salaries for executives. The CEO made $789k in 2021, all while content is created by volunteers.

Edit, edit: a relevant chart straight from the Wikimedia Foundation Wiki page is below. Internet hosting is one of the smallest expense buckets and has been relatively flat year-over-year. Alternatively, salaries and wages are on an unsustainable upward trajectory. This chart is even a few years old and salaries have almost doubled in the last three years to over $101-million in 2023, all while hosting expenses have remained flat.

Did you not read the part where this is the seventh most visited site on the internet... in the world? Literally any other website would be paying their CEO millions upon millions. This guy is basically taking a gigantic pay cut working for Wikimedia.
And do you have any idea how much it costs to have the bandwidth and server space to host the enormity of Wikipedia? It is quite literally one of the physically largest web sites on the internet. And it is continually and constantly being added to. The only other voluntary free information site that really beats it is the wayback machine. Which is another favorite target of conservative douchebags.
It's almost as if rich media moguls don't like people having free access to information they don't control.
And quite frankly I'm of the opinion that you are likely either working for one of them or one of Elon's army of sycophants (I had to retype that several times because it kept auto correcting to "sicko fans", and honestly I don't think that's all that inaccurate either) who are out to help him control the narrative.
- Do you have any idea how much it costs to have the bandwith and server space to host the enormity of Wikipedia?
  Yes $2,335,918 in 2019 per their disclosures. They spend more on travel expenses.
  Wikipedia is a non-profit. The goal shouldn't be to rake in tons of cash.
I’m pretty sure we want content created, vetted, and edited by volunteers. It prevents bias, in theory.
- Sure, I'm not against that and I never said otherwise. It also helps keep costs down. I definitely don't want to see an Elon-enshitified version of Wikipedia with ads and paid content creators. I mostly like Wikipedia just as it is. The one exception would be that I don't like how they try guilt tripping everyone for donations.
  With $400-million between Wikipedia and their endowment, they should easily be able to cover the $3-million in web hosting expenses, without ever touching the principal of their investments. Wikipedia should be already setup to run in perpetuity, if not merely decades.
Is that you musk?
- My post has nothing to do with wokeness or whatever Musk is ranting about. The guy who wrote the essay I linked, originally posted it in 2016/2017? and has been keeping it updated. This abuse of spending is not a new topic. But sure, keep donating so the executives can take home more pay.

I’ll donate, once they start blocking corporate and government contributors.

Tbf, if it is true, it is kinda ridiculous they spend 29℅ of their budget on DEI nonsense. They should use their donations for keeping up the infrastructure and maybe rewarding high-quality editors. Kinda tells me they are doing very well financially and I'm better off supporting other projects.

Musk can still go fuck himself.

Does anyone know what the equality money is spent on?

Is it things censorship bypassing or something else?