I think, beside many other factors, the weather is also one (which is
outside of our control).
In the last few days it was really cool and rainy in Hungary and its
surrounds, and in countries where there was no previous (before September)
campaign for the competition only a suddenly announcement few days ago
(like in Hungary), people can't or don't want to go out taking pictures.
Samat
On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 6:41 PM, Peter Ekman <pdekman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I too have noticed a drop off in photos submitted in
the last few days.
It's fairly important to determine what caused the drop off if we can. It
might be something totally outside of our control, e.g. the situation in
Syria, but might be something like a change in banner display, which we do
have some control over. Did the drop happen in most countries? We don't
have full control over all Wikimedia banners - we do have to share the
space with others, but perhaps they might be willing to delay some of their
displays if we ask nicely.
I do agree that changing the banner from time-to-time can help. I don't
agree that a banner of ""Participate in the world's largest photo-contest
and help Wikipedia," would help any. The imperative verb "Participate"
is very weak, and is not natural to American English speakers. It suggests
a high school home economics teacher telling us that we have to bring
cookies to the annual bake-off. Something more active is definitely
needed, something along the line (but not exactly) of a high school
football coach saying "Go out there and kick some butt!" That would
definitely get some attention as a banner, but not the exact type of
attention we want. A teaser ad might work however, e.g. "About your photos
on Wikipedia .... (smaller type) upload them to Wiki Loves Monuments"
"Snap" might be a verb we want to use. It gives an idea of the action
that we want people to take (snap a snapshot), unlike "participate." So
perhaps "Snap a historic site, Wiki Loves Monuments" It could wake people
up. Or maybe "Snap a snapshot for Wikipedia". As a noun "It's a snap,
Wiki
Loves Monuments"
I don't think these ideas are good enough yet for an actual banner, but I
think that folks should brain-storm this and come up with new ideas.
Straight informative banners can sound bureaucratic or just boring.
Different languages or dialects should be considered separately, as
translations are really tricky, e.g. "It's a snap" might mean something
entirely different in British English
Pete
User:Smallbones