[Wikimedia-l] Question for Board

[Nathan]

While this is a tangent, it's an interesting one! I don't think anyone
has done great empirical testing on the income demographics of
Wikipedia administrators. It looks like income was not included in the
2011 survey; it does say that 42% of all respondents were unemployed,
but this is likely driven by the number of students and minors.

In any case, "poverty line" is a subjective definition that varies
dramatically by jurisdiction. In the U.S., approximately 15% of the
population lives below the U.S. definition of the poverty line. Given
that, it seems extremely unlikely that 18% (or even 15% or 10%) of
American Wikipedians live below that line; for other jurisdictions or
definitions of the line, it seems hard to speculate.

On the larger question, I'm with Jamesofur that I don't think
supporting Wikipedians financially (other than via fellowships as part
of the program budget) was ever on the table. Or at least if it was, I
certainly didn't hear about it.

~Nathan