DigitalDilemma

  • 2 Posts
  • 270 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023

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  • As I explained, I was going to donate. I did my due diligence about where my money would go and made my decision. I provided the link to Wikipedia’s own declared for the benefit of others and shared some of my reasonings elsewhere in this post.

    But in your world, anyone who questions anything is a shill for Musk? Or just those who hold a differing opinion to yours?

    salary expenses includes everyone from the HR department to the custodians, not just the rich CEOs.

    No shit, Sherlock. But where did I mention CEOs? Where did I mention Musk, come to that?

    Anyway, I’m done arguing with you. Goodbye.


  • Love that everyone on this thread is a financial analyst and a 501c consultant.

    So people shouldn’t have an opinion unless they’re professionally qualified? I’m not sure that’s how the internet works.

    And also, people absolutely should check how their money will be spent when they consider donating. It’s their money, remember.

    If you support for this cause, donate. If you don’t, don’t donate or don’t use.

    I get that, and it’s often true I think. But when the thing that they do that you use and like is such a tiny part of their spending, is it still true?

    I care about Wikipedia’s website. I would donate to that. I don’t care about the other 90% of the things they would spent my donation on. Should I still donate?


  • Truthfully, it’s just an excuse to assuage the guilt arising from refusing to support these organisations.

    Sometimes.

    Sometimes it’s a pretty accurate statement.

    I used to run a medium-large charity. I have a fair bit of experience in fundraising and management. Most donators would be shocked at how little their donation actually achieves in isolation. Also at the waste that often goes on, and certainly the salaries at the upper tiers.

    And I could also say that guilt is exactly why people donate. It’s to feel good about themselves, they’re buying karma. Central heating for the soul. I won’t say that’s a bad thing, but it is a thing. It’s also exactly how charities fundraise, because it works. That’s why your post and tv adverts are full of pictures of sad children crying. Every successful charity today is that way because it knows how to manipulate potential supporters. Is that always wrong? Of course not, charities couldn’t do good things without money. But sometimes the ethics in fundraising are extremely flexible.


  • I actually took a look at Wikipedia’s accounts last week as I remembered that campaign when I saw the latest campaign and did some due diligence before donating. I didn’t donate, but I’m still glad Wikipedia exists.

    What I remembered: That hosting costs were tiny and Wikimedia foundation had enough already saved up to operate for over a hundred years without raising any more.

    What I saw: That if that was true, it isn’t any longer. It’s managed growth.

    I don’t think they are at any risk of financial collapse, but they are cutting their cloth to suit their income. That’s normal in business, including charities. If you stop raising money, you stagnate. You find things to spend that money on that are within the charity’s existing aims.

    Some highlights from 2024: $106million in wages. 26m in awards and grants. 6m in “travel and conferences”. Those last two look like optional spends to me, but may be rewards to the volunteer editors. The first seems high, but this is only a light skim

    Net assets at EOY = $271 million. Hosting costs per year are $3million. It’s doing okay.

    If you’re curious; https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/




  • How we’ve done it recently:

    1. Put domain on cloudflare or another registrar that supports an API. Generate a token with the right privs.
    2. Use certbot with the cloudflare plugin, and that token, and generate whatever certs you need within that domain using the DNS01 method.

    No need to have port 80 open to the world, no need for a reverse proxy, no need for NAT rules to point it to the right machine, no need to even have DNS set up for the hostname. All of that BS is removed.

    The token proves your authentication and LetsEncrypt will generate the certs.