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.
You can if you change the definition of libel (or terrorism) to be ‘anything that negatively affects an ultra rich person’. Which is what is happening before our very eyes.
You can. You can sue for any reason that you can dream up. True, a lot of those suits would get thrown out on a motion for summary judgement, but a libel suit would likely pass the test of a prima facie valid case, and the case would proceed. Now, if the facts don't support it, then you'd lose, but if you have a lot more money than the defendant, you can use procedure to bury them financially.
It's one of the major flaws in the U.S. legal system, and anti-SLAPP laws are far too weak, since they usually rely on the defendant to try to enforce them.
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.
Thanks for donating! I give annually too. But we’re going to have to step up our contributions, both financially and in terms of information, if we want to keep Wikipedia a resource for free information and not free propaganda. Megacorps like EM’s and their lobbyists are always fucking up articles, trying to outpace the volunteers who vet the information.
Just look at the Consumer Brands Association or the National Restaurant Association (the lobbying groups who are responsible for suppressing ultra-processed food regulation and fair wage legislation). Among their claims on the Wikipedia pages are that Michelle Obama “asked for their help” for her healthy eating campaign and that they exist to encourage responsible food selection by consumers— referring to sources that are actually about MO issuing a warning to them to improve food labels or else.
Another example is the Scientology page which has been locked due to the relentless efforts of Scientologists constantly trying to edit it with misinformation. Maintaining the integrity of the platform is really a tireless service that volunteers of Wikipedia Foundation provide.
For those who may not be able to donate or want to take additional steps to protect the freedom of shared information, consider contributing to an article you’re passionate about. Platforms like Udemy and Coursera offer free courses on how to research and verify information effectively. While I’ve always been a strong advocate for public libraries, it’s clear that Wikipedia is the essential resource when it comes to current and accessible knowledge.
Thanks, I appreciate your perspective. There was a Wikipedia Lemmy server that popped up for a little while anyway? Does it still exist? What are they up to over there?
I've chatted with some editors before, and listen to editors chatting before, and they basically speak a different language.
It's hard, however, to deal with people acting as individuals who just happen to be paid by Apartheid Manchild to write or edit articles slanted to his fucked-up worldview.
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.
"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!!
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.
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.
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.
Was going to donate to wikipedia a while ago but didn't because they didn't have any fees. Hosting doesn't cost that much for them and their current fund will have them set for a long time. Because of this, I might have to donate.
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.
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.
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.
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.