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Wikipedia can make you rich?

Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:26 pm
by CrowsNest
No, not paid editting, disclosed or otherwise.

As we scratch our heads wondering why anyone would be a Wikipedian, have we perhaps overlooked something rather obvious? Taking Steven Pruitt as an example, the side effects of a life wedded to Wikipedia is, well, a life wedded to Wikipedia.

A 35 year old man with a good government job, living in his mother's basement, with no dependents, and no other hobbies to speak of, well, he's gotta have one hell of a savings account, right? Been living this life for at least 13 years, with no signs of stopping yet. He can't have spent it, at least not all of it.

When you don't really know anyone and do anything, it's hard to burn that amount of cash. Groceries and bills are covered easily. There's only so many times he can pay for house repairs or a cruise for his mother, if we even assume he does. It's just gotta be piling up.

I don't know how it works in the U.S., but in the UK, with that amount of cash rolling in, month after month, year after year, well, you can basically retire at fifty. Like being a teacher, but with half the work and a tenth of the stress. Then you've probably got another 25 years to devote to Wikipedia, full time! I'd have said fifty, if it weren't for the obvious life limiting effects of such a life.

How many other prolific Wikipedians are likely rolling it in, for similar reasons? Good jobs, living at home, no dependents, no other hobbies but Wikipedia.

Can't be too long before the Foundation starts benefiting from pretty sizable legacies, their most devoted followers having nothing else to do with their surplus cash and fixed assets when their Watch(list) has finally ended.

When looked at this way, well, it's not the Steven Pruitt's who are the real losers, is it? Wikipedia took their souls, but at least they gots paid. He's lives a modest life not because he needs to, but because he wants to. True freedom. Illusory, but freedom, nonetheless. A financial independence, of a sort.

It's those people who try to be committed Wikipedians while also having a life and family. Those people just end up having crappy lives, because Wikipedia addiction is all consuming, and when they finally die, they realise it was all for nothing, they are not immortal, their commitment pales in comparison to someone who with their final act, has a WMF bursary created in their name.

After all, Ritchie333's never getting a Wikipedia biography, is he? There will be no Dumbass Scholarship. Fucked his life, his mental health, and for what? He's been retired two weeks, and I think it's only me who even remembers he even was a Wikipedian. Wasted seven years of his life. Should have properly committed, like Steven, and the Christ knows how many other Stevens there are grinding away.