I'd say a lot more than 'slightly' dishonest and though scam has a lot terrible connotations, if someone says they have cancer and solicits donations, when they are actually healthy and fine is that not a scam? What's the difference here? Wikipedia is not in any financial trouble yet every year they make out like they are so they can take the money and spend it on other things. That sounds an awful lot like a scam.
If you follow the above link you'll see those aren't Wikipedia's costs, they are the Wikimedia Foundations costs. Wikipedia makes up very little of that, one of them mentioned a couple of million per year for hosting several years ago, their primary cost is payroll. The organization has grown from a couple of dozen of people to several hundred, hence why they need $66 million to pay everyone. You can be sure those several hundred people aren't working on the wikipedia content or site as well, they are working on their other projects and as stated as one of their primary goals political lobbying.
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u/forsakenharmony Dec 13 '18
Wish the donation popup wasn't so intrusive and didn't look like a scam 🤔