For all of its problems, I do use Wikipedia all of the time. And I can't help but be struck by the constant intrusive fundraiser messages, waving their bright-lettered appeals in your face as you browse, begging for some miniscule amount of money.
We're talking about an informational and referencing backbone here: it is often Wikipedia information that appears in the AI summaries, or else it is just directly referenced by the search engines, displayed at the top of the results, when you search for just about anything.
All of the work that goes into maintaining Wikipedia: all of that labor, all of that information, the weaving together of dense referential constellations of information, the constant contention of assertions and verifications. Wikipedia is massive and at the center of reference and Internet utilization, and all of these massive tech companies are using its ubiquitous public presence everyday to prove they are useful to their customers. Why does Wikipedia have to constantly ask me for $2.75? Where the hell is all the money going?
This reflects a very general relation of capital to the environment, or even to what's left of the public commons. It makes me think of The Giving Tree, as one variation of an old mythic narrative piece. Just take and take and take, who cares? Everyone else is too. Take until all you have left is a stump to sit on when you're finally out of juice.
