Hi Yaroslav,

you're of course right. 
1) the general thankyou message was supposed to be sent out a month ago, together with the survey. We're currently waiting for the last few translations, but after that we can go. 
2) bot messages per country I am not sure about - because it can become overwhelming :) But this is up to the national organizers. 
3) people who helped: this is very often a national thing - but it is ALWAYS good to thank people who helped out! If you (all of you!) saw someone doing a good job, just thank them. That is often more effective than any bot-run job.

Besides that, we should also design again a nice barnstar for the finalists, and it would be nice if we could set up a barnstar for the mass uploaders again. 

Lodewijk


2013/11/20 Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod@mccme.ru>
Dear all,

I was participating in WLM for the third time now, both as an uploader (for multiple countries) and as someone helping with the uploaded files, categorizing them on Commons, placing them into lists, and on one occasion helping the jury with the preselection of photos. I was never involved with any organizational team.

I still remember that in 2011 pretty soon after I started uploading photos, I got a barnstar from Lodewijk for 50 (or was it 100?) uploaded photos. I got also appreciacion messages from the organizing teams of two countries I uploaded photos for, and, if I remember correcly, a general appreciacion WLM message.

In 2012, I got an appreciacion message from one country. I am not sure about the general WLM message, I believe I did not get it.

I am sure in 2013 I got nothing, even though we are in the middle of November. Not that I personally need appreciacion messages (I try to maintain barnstar-free spaces in all projects I am an administrator, including Commons), but I guess if I uploaded 100+ or 200+ photos and did not get anything, then almost nobody got anything.

Since one of the WLM goals was to attract new users, giving appreciacion messages out is particularly important, especially for them.

I would then ask the organization committees, international as well as the national ones, somehow coordinate and do the following:

1) At least leave a nice bot message at the talk page of everybody who uploaded anything for WLM-2013;
2) Ideally, also bot-messages for specific countries (if every country does it we do not need the central one);
3) (This is much more difficult, but would be much more appreciated). Check who categorized images and did the routine maintenance on Commons, who placed the images into the lists and did other maintenance on the projects, and add to their talk pages non-templated messages on how the organizers appreciate their work.

If this is done, I would personally go to the Commons pages of the organizers and thank them there for their work. (I would also appreciate then having the lists because at this point I have no idea who the organizers are).

Though this does not belong to this topic, I would like to take the opportunity and thank all the organizers, national and international - they are still finalizing the results, but I think we already can conclude that they spent considerable time to make the contest happen. Thank you for your time and efforts, they are really appreciated by the wide Wikimedia community.

Cheers
Yaroslav

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