I'm quite disappointed to see that the UK-based wikimania team seems to
have decided that everyone will have to get a credit card to be able to
participate wikimania. A few years back this would indeed have stopped me
from participating in Wikimania. Paypal was already a huge step for me to
take - credit card was simply impossible.
I'm also very sorry to see that this is only surfacing now (why didn't you
ask people about this? Missed opportunity), the evil of assumptions is
indeed valid, the evil of using the organizers' ease of administation as
starting point maybe even more.
I would like to join the chorus to allow paypal, but i would also strongly
suggest to open a separate bank account for wikimania, and allow people to
send their money there, using the invoice code you provide them in the
payment instructions as a description. I'm not convinced that mixing it
with the large amount of donations would actually be helpful (that is
asking for mixups etc).
However - I do remember how complicated it is to set up a payment system -
even one like paypal or iDEAL that seems simple but isn't that really (you
need to track payments and confirm the payment made is matched with the
registration). So given the short time, I think the most reasonable would
be - even though quite uncomfortable - to have cash on-site payment
options. Everyone making it to the conference will be able to handle that,
the big downside is that there are some security issues there too. The good
news is you still have two months to figure those details out.
Best,
Lodewijk
2014-06-04 21:29 GMT+02:00 aude <aude.wiki(a)gmail.com>om>:
On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 8:41 PM, Austin Hair
<adhair(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 8:03 PM, Richard Symonds
<richard.symonds(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
I don't mean to sound daft, but Chip &
PIN cards are (at least here)
MasterCard/Visa cards with 16-digit numbers. The two are the same?
While usually true in the U.S. and UK, this isn't the norm for most of
the world. (Yes, I learned this the hard way.)
+1
It is a headache for me to pay via credit card (send euros to the US, with
bank fee / exchange penalty), then pay penalty again to pay in pounds or
whatnot from US $. Doing this is a big pet peeve and only do with great
hesitation and very good reason.
Paypal is also problematic for me in europe and not an option (although it
works for most people apparently)
Bank transfer would be the way to go. (me send money to Wikimedia UK or
somewhere trusted)
quick google search finds
http://help.eventbrite.com/customer/portal/articles/1267789-use-ideal-to-pr…
would that be an option?
Cheers,
Katie
Assumptions about the availability of various payment systems have
been a thorn in the side for many Wikimanias—for instance, I remember
having to explain that bank transfers aren't just uncommon in the
U.S., but actually inconvenient and often expensive. To be fair, most
people have never had to think about payment processing on a global
scale, and assumptions you learned to make five years ago may not hold
true today.
I wasn't planning to pay using a credit card, but at least I'm
fortunate enough to have that option available to me. Many others
won't—the Netherlands isn't exactly a technologically isolated
country, but revolving lines of credit aren't something your average
student here will routinely have (for instance), and our banking
system isn't centered around the credit card network. It's not my
headache, this year, but I urge the organization team to reconsider
this decision.
Austin
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