Anders please read my essay, readership numbers are in huge decline and it’s accelerating.
Ironically, I agree with things you say here, but not for “no cause for alarm”. When readership is over two digits decrease while Reddit is growing and AI chats product are booming, it’s alarming. Top that with the fact that this is a trend that started almost 10 years ago and is accelerating is even worse. And perhaps you are right, every tu ing will be fine, but data is not pointing in that direction at all. -- Christophe On Sat, Jan 10, 2026 at 9:24 AM Anders Wennersten <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/X3SQ2WA7QF2XS56XV2EOPDPUZ6UQPCR4/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/PG3HS572CTT3EBXYAO7IVE4W5UGXFUN7/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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