Wikipedia
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The internet has broken most of its pioneers’ promises. The utopian ideal of a decentralised, democratic, interconnected digital commons, preserving and sanctifying diversity, freedom of expression and individual self-determination[1] is almost entirely gone.[2] But not quite: a few small flames flicker, and one big one: that has never been bought, sold, compromised, rented, monetised, securitised or degraded — which still cleaves to its utopian aspiration of a better world for all, is the magnificent Wikimedia foundation — the home of Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, the Wikemedia Commons, and its underlying operating infrastructure, MediaWiki.
It is something we all take for too much for granted. Everything about the Wikimedia foundation is extraordinary. The whole thing is crowd-sourced, crowd-coded, crowd-written and supported by purely by volunteers. No advertising, no selling of your data to Russian election fixers.
Plus, it is hands-down, the best web editing software there is out there. It is open-source, it is crowd-sourced, it is non-commercial, and it is amazing. Yes, it’s the same one Wikipedia runs on.
So, why don’t we use it on the JC? WE DO.
But, as Wiktionary illustrates,[3] the money you need to run servers doesn’t grow on trees. Wikimedia foundation needs donors to keep the lights on. You could be one. So if you like this site, and you like the fact that curmudgeonly old bastards like me can spill all my opinions in a safe space, without fear or favour, then support the foundation that makes all this possible. MediaWiki. Go, right now, and donate some money to the Wikimedia Foundation.
https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?