Wikipedia founder sets up ad-free social network

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has created a WikiTribune-esque social medium called WT:Social. The site will have no ads, but also no paywall. Wales is pushing for the site to be able to live on donorships.

The idea is that moderation on the platform should partly be done by the users themselves. “Almost everything on the platform can be edited,” Wales told the Financial Times. “So if you say something annoying, someone can just delete it”. That may be a first on a social network. Wales wants the social network to be free of ‘low quality content and clickbait’, which is important for high traffic and therefore ad revenue, and points to Netflix, Spotify and The New York Times as examples of ‘willingness to pay for meaningful online material’.

The site, which is on the wt.social domain, is still semi-closed. There is a waiting list until Wales has the resources to scale up the service. That waiting list can be skipped by becoming a donor or by persuading others to join WT:Social as well. The cost of a subscription is 12 euros per month or 90 euros per year, which translates into 7.50 euros per month. The idea is that, as with Wikipedia, a relatively small group of donors keeps the site alive.

Users can set up so-called SubWikis at WT:Social, focused on a particular theme. Users can make posts in it, and for now, the SubWikis’ feeds are just in reverse chronological order, although the intention to introduce a Reddit-esk upvote system is also there, according to FT. Unlike WikiTribune, WT:Social will not attempt to appeal to readers from all over the world, but the SubWikis must naturally stay alive based on interest.

The site went online last month, but without much fanfare. Now, since the interview with FT that went online last Wednesday, the site is getting a little more exposure. According to FT, WT:Social has about 50,000 users, 200 of whom are paid members.