--- db <djbaniel(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
1. This notice is not an effective means at raising
funds.
Donations have always dropped way off after fund drives end. The big difference this time
was that
Jimmy's appeal cushioned that drop a bit for a few weeks after the end of this drive.
Even so, the
current daily average is still well over twice that of the last whole month without any
fundraising drive, November 2005 ($438 vs $1190). The notice is simply a reminder that we
need and
accept donations; not much more than the plain [Donations] link in the sidebar but
slightly more
noticeable. In fact, simply thanking people for their continued donations may cause less
donor
fatigue than even the current message.
The conclusion here is that Jimmy's personal
appeal is
FAR FAR more effective at raising funds.
See the anonnotice talk page. There was an edit war over having Jimmy's name on every
page on the
English Wikipedia since that was showing up on Google search results. It did make
'Jimmy Wales'
more popular than 'Jesus Christ' for a while, according to GoogleFight. :)
Therefore: if enough people are insisting on keeping
this notice up, AT LEAST change the link back to
Jimmy's personal appeal until we find something else
that is even more effective. Not doing so is only
going to have a negative impact on long term
fundraising for Wikimedia.
I'm not opposed to that. But at the same time we have to consider donor fatigue and
the fact that
Jimmy's appeal is just about the best kind of weapon we have during an actual
fundraiser. Using
the same weapon all the time may tire potential donors. Thus the simple statement that
donations
keep Wikipedia running. Simple stuff like that will tend to prime the well instead of
running it
dry, IMO.
The personal appeal is well written, sincere, and
effective. The general fundraising page leaves a lot
to be desired. Also, we should set it up so that
people can sign up for ongoing monthly donations, e.g.
$10 taken out of my PayPal account or credit card each
month.
Yeah, the general fundraising page needs a lot of help. It has been a long while since it
was last
overhauled and doing that is on my ToDo list. Please visit the copy on meta to help
improve it.
There is a comment on
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Anonnotice&action=h…
by mav stating "(de-link month-old appeal as promised
and replace with 'Your [continued donations] keep
Wikipedia free!')"
I don't know where or to whom this was promised, and I
can assure you that the majority of nonregistered
users don't either.
The edit comment right before that one.
-- mav
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