As i stated in an earlier thread, i see our situation very different, We
are in this strange world we are in, a winner and important holder of
true fact amid all fake-news and censured channels.
The donation grew by 12,5% 2024-2025 indicating the very strong support
we have amid internet readers, and at least in en wp we see a growth in
new users. Number of readers is about stable the last couple of years at
the same time we see Google, now show WP article directly bypassing WP
interface, and AI bot is more and more heavily relying on the content of
Wikipedia. I see nu cause for alarm at all, on the contrary
Instead of being pessimistic as you indicate I suggest us being
optimistic and use our opportunity to be a more estabished leader in
giving true facts
Anders
Den 2026-01-10 kl. 00:40, skrev Christophe Henner:
Hey everyone,
I struggled with the object, the most honest one would be "Last exit
before irrelevance" but that would be a bit violent.
So, Wikipedia turns 25 next week. I've been here for over twenty of
those years, including stints chairing Wikimedia France and the
Foundation Board. And honestly? I'm worried. Scared to be honnest.
Over the last years, I've been regularly crunching data and sharing on
different channels my worries. But in the last few weeks I decided to
make a much more structured "essay" of my findings
Since 2016, the internet nearly doubled in size.
Our page views? Down. New editor sign-ups? Down 36%.
The people keeping this thing running are working harder than ever,
but there are fewer of them every year.
I wrote it all up: the numbers, what I think went wrong, what I think
we need to do about it. Fair warning: it's long, it's opinionated, and
some of it will probably make you mad.
*Here it is: *https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Schiste/what-now
I'm not trying to be doom and gloom for the sake of it. I genuinely
believe we have maybe two years to make some hard calls about AI,
about money, about who we're actually serving. After that, the window
closes and we become irrelevant.
Could be wrong. Hope I am. But I'd rather we have this argument now
than wish we had later. Well I'd rather we had this argument two or
four years ago, but now we will make do.
Read it, tell me where I'm off base. Let's argue and debate. That's
what talk pages are for, right?
PS: Foundation board mailing list is bcc'ed, change cannot happen
without their commitment. And fast.
--
Christophe
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