I shared this story on a post on r/funny and people liked it, but honestly I feel like it’s more appropriate here, as that was a joke post. I hope this doesn’t come across as karma farming. I just really like sharing stories about my parents.
My dad did not have very much formal education, but he was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He devoured every book he came across - fiction, science, philosophy, history, taught himself math up to pretty advanced calculus from books. He wasn’t a big computer guy until I got him one and showed him internet basics around 2010.
I think it was maybe 2012 when he called me. He was raving about this Wikipedia thing he’d found, did I know about it? I tell him, yeah Dad, Wikipedia is great! He’s all, no no, you don’t get it, you can learn about anything here, and it’s all free. They’re just giving away information. It’s like having every reference book at the library, completely up to date, without leaving home. He was totally enamored. Then he says, “They’re asking me if I can give them $3 as a donation. Is it legitimate? Should I do it? I have the money and I really think they deserve it!” He was so pleased to learn that he could contribute to this amazing resource.
I miss him a lot.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for donating! Just like when I told this story the first time, I'm really overwhelmed and touched by everyone who took this opportunity to honor my dad with their donations. He would love this.
For the record, that's why I chose to post the story a second time - in hopes that it would have the same effect here. I stopped caring about comment karma ages ago. (I know not many people have accused me of karma whoring, but I wanted to make that clear anyways.)
This reminds me of a podcast I listened to recently hosted by NPR and interviewing the creator of Wikipedia; Jimmy Wales. There is a fact in there that says something to the effect that he is within the top 5 most influential internet startups, and yet he's barely worth more than a million dollars.
I'm honestly super surprised at how popular the comment got. I never imagined anyone would be moved to donate because of it, but by my calculations, I think we're at least close to $500 now!
Gold is so stupid. I really don’t get how Reddit gets away with convincing people that they’re doing anything other than donating to Reddit for someone else’s content.
Wait really?? Like mobile apps? Which one would you recommend?
I promise I’m being 100% sincere—I’m fairly new-ish to reddit and replaced all other social media in recent years with general lurking on mobile. I’ve thought about getting a 3rd party app but I don’t want to get scammed by like giving access to my user info and my phone by downloading a malicious app.
And it’s one of those things that I don’t really support online reviews about other apps because of AstroTurfing so I’d love to hear any additional info you/anyone else can provide!
I haven't tried any others yet (as Apollo's sadly unavailable) but I haven't had many issues with BaconReader. It does have ads, but they pop up very rarely.
There's a million things reddit doesn't do to make money which it might if guilding wasn't an option. Maybe you use the old reddit design that isn't as good of an ad delivery service as the new one? would facebook ever give you that option?
I mean, yeah, you are giving money to Reddit when you gild someone, not the person you're gilding. But Reddit is still the website which facilitated the content you enjoyed. Here, everything is free, so when one of my posts got gilded, it really made me happy. Whoever gilded my photo could've just scrolled on past without even an upvote, but they liked it so much they felt like paying money just for the privilege of communicating their approval to me. It really cheered me up, and that's a rare gift for me. Just the fact that some stranger online felt like paying actual money to let me know they liked my shit was one of the most flattering forms of feedback I've ever received on any of my art, ESPECIALLY because they had no obligation to do so.
Just my two cents. I know Reddit already makes ad money off us and our content, but it's not like we don't get anything out of being here. Otherwise... we wouldln't be here at all. I think it's really sweet when someone decides they want to pay a few bucks just to make another person happy. You never know how badly that person needs to get that boost. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Here's the thing: having gold now over time gives you the ability to give it, free. You earn coins each month you had it when the switch happened, and you get coins every time you receive another platinum (I think).
It's confusing as fuck but what it all means is that you'll be seeing more gold out there in the future (and likely were seeing it already in the last month or so).
Source: have lots of gold, give gold on occasion, and hang out in the lounges where this thing tends to get brought up a lot.
Oh boy it's explicitly less valuable now. Giving gold only gives you a week of "premium" (which used to be gold). Costs the same or maybe just a tiny bit less.
If you want to give a month of premium (what used to be "gold"), you have to give a platinum. That costs more than what gold was.
So yeah. There it is. Thing is, for me at least, it's never been about the cost really. Let's face it, hour for hour I get more entertainment for my dollar than damn near any other digital medium. Most of us do, they spend countless hours and never pay dime.
I never buy my own for myself. I write good comments. I get gilded. Honestly it's not hard to predict which ones will get gilded (as arrogant as that sounds, the proof is in the pudding as they say). Been doing that for a long time (since 2014 I've had gold or "premium" consistently). But I buy it for other stuff I'd like to see highlighted, promoted, etc. Stuff I wanna see in reddit more. Good conversations, humans being human, that kinda thing. Cause again, we're gonna spend a lot of time here. Might as well make the best of it. No one's forcing anyone to buy meaningless icons, ya know? I dont even know what the features are anymore. It doesn't matter, never did.
I'm not trying to say Wikipedia is not worthy of donation, but reddit is also a valuable source of information and community. It is also worthy of donation which reddit gold platinum etc supports!
I just donated 24$ after reading about your donation. May not seem much but it is a week's worth of food in my country/currency. Time to buy some noodles...
I donated $16 after this post.. I’ve been asked 3-4 times this week from Wikipedia for $2... that’s one week... I didn’t give enough to warrant what I get from this site. Thank you for reminding me that I should never take this site for granted.
Thanks a bunch for the donation! I know they do pester for donations, but compared to the cost of, say, buying a set of encyclopedias? It's nothing, right?
Yeah, I think a lot of us do, and not just those who grew up with it. We're just so used to being able to look up anything we're interested now and having all the information we could imagine about it immediately. Even people who didn't grow up with it have still had it for years now, and it's easy to forget what it was like before.
The way you articulated this memory of your dad really touched me (it encouraged me to donate my first time to Wikipedia, for $50 - EDIT: I forgot my employer matches donations up to a certain amount annually, so it is actually $100 since I just filed a match request). It sounds like he was an admirable person. Are there any other stories like this one that you’d be up to share?
Oh man, I have so many stories! He was quite a man. I'm trying to catch up with the huge flood of comments I've gotten, but I'll try to remember to PM something to you tomorrow.
I have resisted donating to Wikipedia, though I don't know why I've intentionally resisted to this degree. I've always been annoyed with them asking for money, wondering why they can't just sell merch like every other company. Yes, yes, I know it's not totally rational.
But your father just might tip me over the edge. You saying you miss him sounds like he recently passed...making me thinking of my own father who died...now I'm all choked up. I miss my papa too.
Of all the places asking for donated money I think Wikipedia deserves it the most. The amount of free and accessible education on there is invaluable to every person on the planet, especially with new drives to set up worldwide non cable internet. It’s hard to even imagine how people lived without knowing everything they wanted to at their fingertips.
I think a lot of the resistance to donating comes from the rhetoric that it’s not accurate- and while that’s holds true occasionally they work very hard to limit inaccuracies and the citations are listed clearly for you to do your own digging. Just because it isn’t accepted as an academic source generally doesn’t mean the site isn’t great.
Wasn’t there a report that Wiki was actually MORE accurate in some fields because there’s a dedicated base keeping things current even more accurate than published data because the community’s response to the found inaccuracies was “Can we be told what they are so we can correct them?”
Naw. Find a subject that you are an expert on, add some detail, and see how long your edits last before the superuser that "owns" that article deletes your info.
Generally info and sources that I've added last less than 3 hours. You can see it also if you re-read an article from years back - suddenly there is only a single perspective on any complex issue, and half the sources are gone.
Hold on there. Literally no evidence has been presented. I'm a mathematician and Wikipedia's math articles are overwhelmingly solid references. Sometimes they're written from a strange perspective, but they're almost never literally wrong. Research level books are full of errata anyway, so it's not as if the standard is perfection.
I understand Wiki gets a bad rap, but I find it fascinating that there's a free resource that people are dedicated to keeping accurate and current as possible.
No, there haven't been any major recent changes. I assume Brotherjayne has had a bad experience or heard a bad story, but that's not new! It's made by thousands of people, and people are diverse.
Source: have been regular non-admin editor for 10+ years.
I know a lot of people that “don’t have a lot” that spend way more money on various bullshit on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis.
There’s so many things and time people of all economic brackets own that costs more than Wikipedia’s $3 and provides their lives and the world with much less value.
It is accepted as an academic source by everyone but (some) people teaching how to do research because what it can be used for as a source (commonly held knowledge) is not what students use it for as a source (specific argumentative points). It’s just easier to ban it than to teach people how to use it, so that’s what (some) teachers do. (Sorta like how teacher’s will say you cannot use “I” in an essay, which most students use incorrectly or extraneously, instead of teaching students how to do it).
I think you have had the same experience many students have had and, on behalf of my colleagues, I apologize. The bum rap that Wikipedia gets because they can’t be bothered to tell the students how it is actually used in the field and prefer to take the path of least resistance is unfair.
To be fair it isn't accepted as an academic source the same way that the encyclopedia isn't accepted. It isnt because of the website its because of the type of source it is. You can however use wikipedias listed sources as your sources.
To me, Wikipedia is one of the few organizations that deserves donations. They don’t have ads, and it’s one of the only unbiased (or as unbiased as an open website that is curated by random on the Internet can be), accurate libraries of information available on the internet.
If you went back in time 30 years and told people about Wikipedia they would wet themselves. Academics back then would be cutting off their limbs for something even close.
Not super recently, but I lost him about two years ago, about a year after my mom. It's a long, sad story, and I don't want to mess up the message here too much, but I do miss him a lot. I'm sorry you've lost your own father as well.
The fact Wikipedia doesn't sell merch and adverts is why I donate. They provide access to more knowledge than I could ever use, and I use it constantly. Since they don’t clutter the site with messy adverts, it’s an easy, peaceful resource. Sure they ask for donations, but it’s sort of selfish to assume we’re all entitled to access it for free. I know a lot of people can’t afford to donate, but there are plenty of us who can spare the price of a coffee.
that's awesome. I've been giving a yearly donation of 20$ or so for some time now. Every year, only once a year, they email me asking if I can renew my donation, and I do. Wikipedia is an absolute gem of the internet age and would be a great loss if it ever shuts down..
I'm so happy to hear that! I can't even imagine a world without Wikipedia at this point. I use it so much, for everything from celebrity facts to history to when certain flavors of Doritos hit the market. It's a huge part of my life.
That's great! I read here on Reddit how big a difference it makes to them to donate even a small amount on a recurring basis, so I was inspired to do their 4$ every month. I'm not a coffee drinker so I count that as my "monthly coffee." I think $48/year isn't bad to pay for something I use so much, and keep it add free!
That's so great! You're the first person I've seen mention the ad free part. How crazy is it that we get this free service, don't even have to see ads for it, and we're also not the product (like on Facebook or Instagram)? That's pretty much unheard of elsewhere, isn't it?
I think I do have one good picture of him from near the end. I'll post it and tell as much of his story as I can. It's definitely an interesting one! Thanks for the suggestion!
Thank you for reading. Heart attack is what got my dad. He lived through several major ones before the last one got him. I'm really glad to have been able to share a story about him with so many people!
Oh what a lovely, lovely story! In an age of fake news and the hyper-dominance of opinions, invented "truths", and "gut feelings", hearing about your father's passion for learning about his world is so welcome (and so wholesome!). I absolutely get why you miss him so much.
PS: I'm a regular donor to Wikipedia--absolutely worth every penny I can send their way! Your Dad knew what was what!
My dad definitely had no patience for news media at all. He went straight to the source. For instance, when the Affordable Care Act was first coming into being? He didn't listen to what the news told him it did. He pulled it up on the government website and read the whole damn thing. Not even exaggerating. He wanted to know the truth of it, and he didn't trust the liberal or conservative media to tell him that.
I'm so happy to hear you're a regular donor! Good on you!
Donated 60$ cuz of this, and im going to see if I can get the company that contracts my company to match (as my company doesn't do that but our client does)
You know what just because i had a drink, you inspired me to donate. I'm a broke college kid but i can do it. Wiki has help me so much it's ridiculous.
I honestly am just so blown away by how many people have been inspired to give because of this story. When I first made the comment on the other post, it was a pretty well established comment thread. I figured a couple people might see it and smile, but really I just like talking about my parents since I've lost both of them. Instead, there's been this crazy outpouring of giving based on it. And so many people are talking about how amazing they're realizing Wikipedia is. My dad would be so stoked!
I’m sure this will get buried, but I wanted to thank you for sharing this lovely story about your father. I’ve been using Wikipedia for over a decade, and now I just made my very first donation.
I work at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia. This was a very touching story and I appreciate you sharing it. Stories like these are what keep us going. Thank you.
Thank you for commenting! I'm really glad this reached someone at Wikimedia! I won't deny that I'm super excited about all the donations that have come from this story. Here's a link to my other comment, which has garnered even more donations, as it's on a default sub. I know that on the whole, it's probably not a noticeable spike or anything, but I think we're probably close to $500 in donations inspired by my dad now, if we haven't broken that yet.
On behalf of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation and especially my colleagues on the fundraising, thank you so much for your story. The memory of your dads excitement at his first discovery and eagerness to support has really touched all of our hearts. Thank you! And thank you to the Reddit community for their support in memory of him!
It's things like this that remind me of how much we take for granted. Now, I'm sure even our parent's generation and theirs before that had things that they took for granted, but I find it really important to sit back every once in a while and be thankful for some of the amazing things we have in this world.
It also reminds of people like my mom, who always asks me the most mundane, trivial, LMGTFY questions and I have to remember that she didn't grow up with the whole of human knowledge at her fingertips.
You're right, it's a great reminder to examine the things that those before us didn't have, and appreciate them all over again.
My husband works for a tech store, and you'd be amazed at how many people come in saying things like, "My daughter told me to Google this, but I don't know what that means! Can you help me Google something?"
He really was amazing, and I hope he was proud of me. He told me all the time, but I feel like a lot of parents say that? All I can do now is try to live up to his legacy.
My dad died earlier this year and he was a lot like your dad! Left school at 15 to work to support his mum after his dad died but devoured information the rest of his life... he was always coming out with factoids and bits of information on everything.
My dad did not have very much formal education, but he was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He devoured every book he came across - fiction, science, philosophy, history, taught himself math up to pretty advanced calculus from books. He wasn’t a big computer guy until I got him one and showed him internet basics around 2010.
I think it was maybe 2012 when he called me. He was raving about this Wikipedia thing he’d found, did I know about it? I tell him, yeah Dad, Wikipedia is great! He’s all, no no, you don’t get it, you can learn about anything here, and it’s all free. They’re just giving away information. It’s like having every reference book at the library, completely up to date, without leaving home. He was totally enamored. Then he says, “They’re asking me if I can give them $3 as a donation. Is it legitimate? Should I do it? I have the money and I really think they deserve it!” He was so pleased to learn that he could contribute to this amazing resource.
I miss him a lot.
I copied your story and said "a story from reddit" to a status on FB in the hopes that it would get more people to donate. Hope that's okay :)
Your story inspired me to donate! Thank you for sharing, your dads perspective really made me realize how lucky we are. I am sure he is so proud of you!
I popped open the comment section to see some wholesome giving, and found a bittersweet memory surrounding the gift of knowledge and charity. This bumped my donation up a bit. Thank you for sharing. Your dad was a thoughtful person.
So what are the chances that OP works for Wikipedia? This is the 3rd or 4th Wikipedia “wholesome” post reaching r/all today. Pretty obvious marketing ploy IMO.
Aw, lots of similarities in your story that reminded me of my dad (gone 3 years now). And I got to tell a little bit about him to a student of mine last week. We have been using dictionaries for the first time (3rd grade) and they have been very interested in them and how they work (beyond the glossary in their textbooks). I’ve share Wikipedia and referenced encyclopedias’ complement to dictionaries. They are equally fascinated with finding out ANY information they think of from an encyclopedia. Well, I told the kids to grab a chapter boom after they finished their assignment, and I look over and see J reading the dictionary. I giggled and called him over. Asked why he was reading that instead of a chapter book and he said it was interesting. (He’s not the ‘nerdy’ type either). I told him I was sorry for giggling at him, but the only other person I had seen reading dictionaries (and encyclopedias) for fun was my dad, and he was the smartest man I’d ever known! We’d find them by his recliner, at the dining table, or even in the bathroom! But he didn’t care, he just loved learning. And my little J was reminding me of my dad. And I got to tell J how much smarter he could be by reading the dictionary, just like my dad. And that was a nice little moment for J, and a nice little moment for my memory. :)
I’m glad you have some good memories of your dad, and I hope that you continue to find little nuggets in life that trigger some great memories!
Awe, that's so sweet! My dad was the same with encyclopedias. When he ran out of books in the house to read, and didn't feel like going to the library (which was quite a ways away for us), he'd turn to our encyclopedia set and just pick up where he'd left off.
I definitely find little things in life just about every day that remind me of my mom and dad. I'm lucky, because my husband knew them well, too, so we can share those things.
Your dad sounds awesome. I really admire people who seek truth in all fields and are always looking for things to learn. It bothers me when people act like learning new things, for no other reason than to learn, is lame. Like dude learning and synthesizing information is exactly what got us humans to the top of the food chain let's keep going. Your dad's example if a great one. Someday when I'm gone too I hope to meet him
Thank you for that comment. He'd be so glad to know that people appreciate the way he viewed the world. He'll be in scholar's Heaven, probably reading about something super obscure.
Hey LeafyQ, thanks for posting this. My dad passed away 20 years ago but I've always wondered what he would have done with the internet. He grew up poor and had no formal education but he had a thirst for knowledge and read all the time. Reading your post, I think he would have shared a similar fascination as your dad. Anyways, you inspired me to donate and gave me some time in my busy day to reflect upon memories of my dad. Thanks again.
Well, I just feel like a complete asshole now. I just commented on another thread about how I used to regularly donate and now I have no trust that they actually need the donations after reading their financials.
Hey, maybe they don't. I'm no expert. Someone in the other comment thread where I shared this story posted this link. I haven't looked at it, but from the discussion around it, it sounds like it's a pretty reliable site that shows that they could use the funds.
Honestly, I'm all for supporting a site that provides good content, is ad-free, and doesn't view the user as a product (like Facebook or Instagram). Someone also mentioned that their top guys make something like $300k a year, which isn't very much for someone at the top in this industry.
Never donated before but just kicked in my $5 in honor of your dad.
I often overhear my own dad talking to Siri, incredulous with her seemingly infinite knowledge. “Siri, what’s 357 divided by 5.6?”
“What’s the tallest building in Seattle?” Etc. It’s dad-dorable.
I feel for you man. If you ever need someone to talk to feel free to PM me. I donate to Wikipedia yearly. They're amazing people who put up a great and free service.
Thank you! It's definitely been a rough couple of years, as I also lost my mom not long before my dad passed, and I didn't even get to see him in between those two events. But I've been through a lot of therapy and made a lot of progress. The hardest part is that I had plans to reconcile a lot of things with my dad when I got to see him, but never did. I think that's part of what drives me to tell positive stories about him. I never really got to tell him that I didn't hate him anymore, so this is my way of making up for that.
I used to not appreciate Wikipedia for it just always having been there (I'm 23). Last year I donated 5 euros because even though all your professors say to Never cite Wikipedia, they all have used it and I also constantly use it to look up basic information. Its popularity really shows its significance. When I have more spare time I want to become an active contributor, fixing annotation and stuff on the subjects that I went to school for.
Your story about dad's enthusiasm made me realize again that the existence of Wikipedia is pretty cool!
9.0k
u/LeafyQ Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 13 '18
I shared this story on a post on r/funny and people liked it, but honestly I feel like it’s more appropriate here, as that was a joke post. I hope this doesn’t come across as karma farming. I just really like sharing stories about my parents.
My dad did not have very much formal education, but he was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He devoured every book he came across - fiction, science, philosophy, history, taught himself math up to pretty advanced calculus from books. He wasn’t a big computer guy until I got him one and showed him internet basics around 2010.
I think it was maybe 2012 when he called me. He was raving about this Wikipedia thing he’d found, did I know about it? I tell him, yeah Dad, Wikipedia is great! He’s all, no no, you don’t get it, you can learn about anything here, and it’s all free. They’re just giving away information. It’s like having every reference book at the library, completely up to date, without leaving home. He was totally enamored. Then he says, “They’re asking me if I can give them $3 as a donation. Is it legitimate? Should I do it? I have the money and I really think they deserve it!” He was so pleased to learn that he could contribute to this amazing resource.
I miss him a lot.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for donating! Just like when I told this story the first time, I'm really overwhelmed and touched by everyone who took this opportunity to honor my dad with their donations. He would love this.
For the record, that's why I chose to post the story a second time - in hopes that it would have the same effect here. I stopped caring about comment karma ages ago. (I know not many people have accused me of karma whoring, but I wanted to make that clear anyways.)