On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 11:41 PM, rupert THURNER rupert.thurner@gmail.comwrote:
hi sam,
from time to time you manage to puzzle me. discussions with you are in general path-leading and very inspiring. i appreciate this :) you know why i edit wikipedia? (1) because i want to find that information online afterwards, freely available, no strings attached. and (2) because i love to meet people around the movement so (1) is easier to achieve. you know why people pay money (i.e. donate)? because they like this as well.
you know what would make me stop edit? if you want me to pay additional money only because i am an interested volunteer. this is independent of how much money i earn.
just in case you try to say: i get it cheaper because i am poor, a student, a woman, disabled, or my organisation pays for it. i want to be treated as a normal person, and i want to pay a normal price. i want my organisation to pay a normal price for me in case they pay. i am not a beggar. my organisation is not a beggar. and i do not need WMF to make me one. i want that our local GLAMs who are funded by by tax money i pay are not ripped off additionally by wikimedia foundation triggering high entry prices. this is also valid for people like anasuya sengupta. as she is not contributing, she is not eligible somebody pays her flight and entry to the conference. please do not rip off people like her as well.
so - low ticket prices for everybody - and using donations to make contributing people meet is a good thing. i volunteer to edit wikipedia and i engage myself in fundraising and tax exemption to allow this to people. besides (1) contributing contents, and (2) contributing software, meeting is imo one of the three core functions of the movement.
I didn't get that sense from SJ's post at all. Progressive and appropriate pricing that preserves the ability of Wikimedians to attend Wikimania is simply sensible management of donor funds. As a charitable organization that depends on donations, the WMF (and chapters) should not be using those funds to subsidize attendance for those who don't need it. Pricing tickets to all attendees below the cost of participation is a subsidy for all them that many don't need, and it makes sense to me for the WMF to limit subsidies to those participants who have requested it.