system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why hasn't wikipedia gone to an ad based model yet if they are losing money?

Almost annually Wikipedia asks for money to help support their costs. I don't see how the one time a year they ask for money solves anything and it's only a matter of time before they go to ads.
gpt
Because they really don't want to. Wikipedia has always been ad free and user supported. People donate year round, not just at the donation drive. They start the donation drive when money gets thin. So far, its always worked. As long as they only have to pester you for a short time out of the year, they see that as far more ideal than having ads year round. One of the big tenants of wikipedia is also neutrality. The many wikipedia pages are (usually, and if not they get fixed) written in a manner so as not to support any one side, but remain factual. Having ads on wikipedia would be inherently not neutral.