Hacker News Reader

Comment by tompagenet2 | Hacker News Reader

There's a huge jump there. I don't agree that the average person donating to Wikipedia through these ads thinks they're donating to "ensuring there's an environment of well educated people", above and beyond providing a neutral, comprehensive and universally-editable encyclopaedia.

You're absolutely right I don't know how much it costs to operate in perpetuity. If your point is about building up a trust that's a great idea. I can't see anything in the plan about this: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_...

View on HN

The average person is donating to the concept of Wikipedia. "I like this site, I'll toss them a couple bucks". They probably don't care how it's allocated at all.

Like all donations, it's an abstraction - you donate to the thing you see, but behind the abstraction is a complex bit of machinery you do not understand.

I donate to the world wildlife fund. I assume my donations help wildlife both concretely and abstractly, and that they continue to keep the WWF operational. I have no idea where my $50 actually goes, nor do I particularly care.

Same with Doctors Without Borders, or whatever else.

I assume charities know better than me their needs and finances.

<<I have no idea where my $50 actually goes, nor do I particularly care.

I hate to say this, but I think this is one reason why we anecdotally read reports of lottery winners relatively quickly returning to their original predicament. Some people are terrible at allocating resources. For Wikipedia, of all places, to take advantage of that is mildly.. well.. evil.

<<behind the abstraction is a complex bit of machinery you do not understand.

Not all people operate like that. Some like to understand where their money is going. If it is doing good, that is great! Can I see how you do it? Wait. This financial statement says you are not doing nearly as well as you just told me you did. Can you explain it to me?

It is a very different mindset. I restrict my donations to occasional EFF and IA, but I primarily focus on donating my time ( the nature of those varies as I am still searching for a way to make actual impact ).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com