In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers. Wikipedia’s editors are now threatening to strike in solidarity. The Foundation is sitting on $296 million in reserves and a freshly profitable AI revenue stream. This is a confrontation with global implications.
I wish I was already a donor so I could send this email. First time I’ve felt regret like this, I should be more proactive about supporting things like this in the future. Thanks for sharing.
It took me a long time and some kicks in the butt to make some of my donations recurring. Like I decided to give recurring donations to Wikimedia and the Internet Archive a few years back when Elon was attacking both of them. I’d given as one-offs when Wikipedia would prompt for donations, but was proud to make it a recurring thing.