Musk makes Wikipedia an ''interesting'' offer
Tech giants and billionaires often make headlines for their audacious and sometimes quirky ideas, Elon Musk has once again captured our attention. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is known for his innovative spirit and a penchant for stirring the pot. Recently, Musk made a staggering offer.
In Elon Musk Wikipedia tweet that wen viral on X, the businessman offered one billion dollars to Wikipedia, one of the internet's most venerable and valuable sources of information, if they change their name to... Well, ''D*ckipedia''.
See the Elon Musk Wikipedia tweet/xeet below.
I will give them a billion dollars if they change their name to Dickipedia https://t.co/wxoHQdRICy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2023
Elon Musk Wikipedia tweet's unconventional offer
Elon Musk's offer is a testament to his unique style. He has offered this billion-dollar donation to Wikipedia on one condition: they must change their name to "D*ckipedia".
This unexpected and slightly eccentric proposition has sparked a whirlwind of reactions, raising questions about Musk's intentions and the implications of such a change.
Unsurprisingly, the internet was quick to react to Musk's proposal. Some found it amusing and in line with his well-known sense of humor, while others viewed it as an audacious stunt. There were debates about the potential impact of such a name change on Wikipedia's credibility and reputation as a trusted source of information.
After all, the name "D*ckipedia" carries a very different connotation and could lead to various interpretations.
Why is Elon saying that?
Elon Musk Wikipedia tweet came after Musk criticized the Wikimedia Foundation for seeking substantial funding. He questioned the necessity of such financial support, suggesting that the entire text of Wikipedia could easily fit on a mobile phone. Musk's curiosity led to a wave of inquiries about the purpose of the requested funds.
However, he didn't have to wait long for an answer. The Wikimedia Foundation, responsible for Wikipedia's operations, explained that their platform handles over 25 billion page views per month and manages over 44 million page edits monthly.
These staggering numbers reflect the substantial operating costs required to maintain the vast database of free information. Furthermore, the foundation maintains transparency by employing third-party financial auditors, whose reports are accessible to the public, ensuring accountability in their financial practices.
Isn't the first time
Musk's interaction with Wikipedia goes beyond this recent donation offer. In the past, he clashed with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales over content restrictions on the social media platform X in the lead-up to Turkey's presidential election.
Musk's decisions were criticized for potentially limiting free expression. Additionally, under Musk's leadership, the social media platform was accused of becoming more compliant with government requests for censorship and surveillance.
In 2018, Musk further demonstrated his interest in journalism and information credibility by announcing his intention to create a website called "Pravda".
The platform aimed to allow the public to rate the "core truth" of articles and track the credibility of journalists, editors, and their publications, emphasizing the importance of transparency and trustworthiness in the world of information but he decided to rebrand Twitter instead.
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Musk would know all about failed renames. I would consider him an authority on the subject.
CIApedia
Does anyone actually believe Musk will pay up if Wikipedia calls his bluff? He’s done this before, said he’d fight Zuckerberg for charity then backed out, said he’d take Tesla private then backed out, said he buy Twitter then tried unsuccessfully to back out.
You people are taking this seriously?
Suggest you all download a sense of humor.
Wikipedia is not a seious website. Musk is mocking wikipedia because they deserve it.
Thanks for the laugh Musk.
You are right, people laugh at him, just not in the way you think.
Musk should just change his name to “Dick”. If he wasn’t a billionaire
he would be regarded as such. The rich get away with vulgar behaviour
and believe that good manners are for the “little people”.
His Dickipedia “joke” is so infantile it’s embarrassing.
Musk is completely right, Dickipedia should be the best name for such an overrated site full of mistakes, obscure propaganda and a so depressing way to tell you that they and only they know the whole truth about everything. And literally you should shut up and read without complaints.
I was embarrassed to even read this. Are we devolving as a species? It isn’t just Musk. This kind of behavior, alternative facts for personal gain, decisions based on hatred… it all seems to have become normalized.
The only things that seem to sell are hate, personal attacks, innuendo, conspiracies, racism, xenophobia and all the other things coming from a similar mindset. These things have always existed but they seemed to be embraced – more and more – as badges of honor.
It’s quite disgraceful.
@james, embarrassed so was I. And indeed it isn’t just Musk.
What is odd, or is it relevant, is the difference very often between one’s behavior in private and in public, moreover when “anonymous”. You’d speak in private with a convulsive hater that he’d might very well be a nice, kind, calm guy, a sort of guy who helps old ladies cross the road. But among others, thousands, millions of others, he sort of disconnects from reality. That’s for hate speech on the social sites. In real life you’ve always had people who spend their thoughts to figure out the best way to spend their time for quick and dirty profit. I wouldn’t want to believe those two guys are the same, systematically.
On 13 December, Wikipedia should change the name to Dickipedia for one day to celebrate the birthday of Dick Van Dyke and claim the billion dollars from the man-child.
Oh! Duck Van Dyke … I remember is TV show, that wa back in the sixties, some sixty years ago. Together with the Patty Duke Show, Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, The Beverly Hillbillies …
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Anyway, back to Musk, Elon Musk. Pathetic in my view. I mean, if wealthy people start laughing about less wealthy ones where are Anglo-Saxons leading to given in my experience they are the less fancy about their social status I know. The guy is a clown, a sad clown.
That’s Dick Van Dyke, a truly Dutch name. Sorry Dick.
How about Dick Tracy now that we’re in physiological names?!
What about Tricky Dick ?
If I recall right, he was once President and was caught watering a gate or something like that.
Then we have Dick Grayson, the underage toy boy of a guy who loves to dress in black leather and beat others.
And finally, there is Philip K Dick. The guy alone downed 70% off all globally produced LSD in the 60s and had a kind of pathological interest in sleeping habits regarding a certain ruminant species.
Seems there are just too many dicks on this planet. So quite a wide variety to choose from.
Lol, AI generated or not, this is a mildly interesting article.
WIkipedia is really a mixed bag – on topics where there is any kind of disagreement (especially political, or maybe also historical), you can’t be sure you’re getting an unbiased, balanced description of the situation. There’s some “low interest” things in Wikipedia, where there’s nothing in it for anybody to push an agenda, such topics will have decent, respectable and helpful information, so like I said, it is a mixed bag.
You haven’t seen the bad side of Wikipedia until you’ve come across incorrect info and are actively prevented from changing it due to the toxic gatekeeping surrounding updating info (I don’t use buzzwords like that often…)
If wikipedia were to go away, there’d just be more sites out there, each one containing bits of info – all the info would still be out there, it would just not be condensed in one place, making homework that much harder for copy&paste kiddies in school.
Another problem with wiki is liability – if there is something damaging, defamatory, wildly wrong on there, it may be seen by many people and you will not be able to do anything about it? Sue the organisation? They’ll say it’s 1000s of near-anonymous individuals making many micro-edits, nobody can be held responsible.
This “joke” proposal would obviously harm brand recognition slightly, but as long as they have a redirect from the original URL to the new one, it wouldn’t matter much. If my goal was to preserve as much info as possible for as long as possible, and finances were an issue, such a small thing like a “name” matters little in the grand scheme of things – obviously, they won’t go for it :)
> This “joke” proposal would obviously harm brand recognition slightly, but as long as they have a redirect from the original URL to the new one, it wouldn’t matter much. If my goal was to preserve as much info as possible for as long as possible, and finances were an issue, such a small thing like a “name” matters little in the grand scheme of things
So you’d change a volunteer project name to a joke just because it would make a billionaire laugh within his superiority?
Hi John, that’s weird… I thought I clarified this point in my original message :)
“If my goal was to preserve as much info as possible for as long as possible, and finances were an issue, such a small thing like a “name” matters little in the grand scheme of things”
Yes, of course I would. But wikipedia cares more about being the top result and having their data pulled by search engines, than the actual preservation and documentation of data. Do you know how much money that is? Especially for a website such as Wikipedia, I don’t care of their running costs, a billion goes a long way. Should be a no-brainer.
Like I said, all they need is a special domain redirect that makes sure all old links redirect to their new equivalents correctly, and boom. I don’t care about Elon and if he would laugh (he doesn’t live rent free in my head…), i’d just be happy that my project got a massive funding boost, especially from someone that doesn’t even like the project! Maybe I’d argue and try to negotiate something like “$500 million if we can change it back after 10 years”, you know, something like that :)