Inside ArXiv

arXiv has nothing to gain by a PR blitz. Any academic knows what is arXiv exactly for, and there is no intention to grow user base or whatever. It's not a social media.

We're in a political climate where scientific institutions are under threat, so of course they will loudly justify their own existence and value. It'd be irresponsible of them not to. That's not all that similar to a company being acquired and subsequently squeezed for value. ArXiv isn't a loss leader for a venture backed firm.

Not sure I agree with the comment you're responding to. But the article discusses some of their funding troubles, and the main mage of arxiv.org itself has a donate link. So I think perhaps the media presence might be motivated by a desire to fundraise (and IMO they absolutely deserve funding because of the important work they do).

You're right. I didn't consider the funding angle at all, but only the accusation of "enshittification" which usually comes from a VC or an entity that wants to generate more profits by expanding. On the other hand, I do think Simons Foundations would not let arXiv die. Also, I don't agree that arXiv's media presence has ulterior motives after all. It might just be that it's getting its share of fame.

You may reasonably disagree with my comment, but using your imagination you'll find that there are lots of ways by which arXiv (the organization) and its staff could benefit from PR.

Lots of academics in distant fields are unaware of arXiv, and even academics (like me) who use arXiv daily and host their preprints there don't think of it as any more than a place to store, catalogue, and retrieve papers.

Look at all the ways in which arXiv is (like any institution) perpetuating and expanding itself: https://blog.arxiv.org/

Look at these extra things arXiv is doing (including commercial integrations): https://info.arxiv.org/labs/showcase.html

I've been gratefully using and contributing to arXiv since 2008, and I hope it continues to be the incredible resource that it is. I think your take is naive and that even great institutions can end up like Mozilla.