Wikipedia: Difference between revisions

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{{g}}Something we take for too much for granted. ''Everything'' about Wikipedia, its software [[MediaWiki]], and the Wikimedia foundation behind it, is ''extraordinary''. The whole thing is crowd-sourced and crowd-funded. 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.  
{{a|devil|}}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<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-utopianism</ref> is almost entirely gone.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship</ref> 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 Jimmy Wales’ magnificent Wikimedia foundation — the home of Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, the Wikemedia Commons, and its underlying operating infrastructure, MediaWiki.  


So why don’t we use it on the [[JC]]?
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.


WE DO.
Plus, it is hands-down, ''the best'' web editing software there is out there.  


Go, right now, and donate some money to the Wikimedia Foundation.
So, why don’t we use it on the [[JC]]? WE DO.
 
But, as Wiktionary illustrates,<ref>https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/money_doesn%27t_grow_on_trees.</ref> 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 👇. Go, right now, and donate some money to the Wikimedia Foundation.


https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?  
https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?  

Revision as of 13:30, 7 September 2021


In which the curmudgeonly old sod puts the world to rights.
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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 Jimmy Wales’ 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.

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 👇. Go, right now, and donate some money to the Wikimedia Foundation.

https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?

See also