> This is a personal essay. It reflects the views of the author.

> By Christopher Henner - schiste · January 10, 2026. Former Chair of the Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation. 20-year Wikimedian

Anecdotally, I strongly prefer Wikipedia (when available) over LLMs, because Wikipedia is not only more reliable but also more concise. I will keep preferring Wikipedia unless LLMs become more reliable and concise, and if that ever happens I think Wikipedia is doomed no matter what.

If there are ways to gain views without sacrificing quality, like better search, I’m all for them. But I don’t see an urgent need for change; Wikipedia has plenty of funding, volunteers, and users like me.

The Expanding What We Measure section was very nice to see. Thank god somebody is attempting to measure more qualitative metrics like the experience of contributing rather than annoying people into clicking around more.