We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed
it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks
also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special
thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator
on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it
will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done --
translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I
think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the
design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
- - - - -
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm
convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our
stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and
therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four
parts:
1) Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him.
2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes
his attitude towards life in general.
3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very
special and useful.
4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a
result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if
it's necessary you can change the sequence:
1) Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth.
3) He does something very special.
2) Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work
suddenly proves to be very useful.
4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work
(properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we
can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers
who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who
cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the
e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all
know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being
asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new
fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their"
Wikipedia stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the
currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes
to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to
"donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide
a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax
exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be
variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to
deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia
Netherlands".
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France?
At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit
money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment
options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can
help with that.
- - - - -
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional
stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to
post them, to me or to the list. :-)
Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which
hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as
needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all!
Erik
The Cunctator writes:
> But please, don't ask for our harmony, trust, generosity, support,
> and
> kindness.
>
> Earn it.
This is a fair point, so long as it is a reciprocal obligation. I
have great respect for those who have honest criticisms of any process
or decision at the Foundation. But sometimes those criticisms are
framed in terms of recrimination, bitterness, mean-spiritedness, and
so on. This choice of tone tends to obscure the message.
I think we can all do better. The way you create generosity is not by
waiting around and demanding that other people be generous towards
you. The way you create kindness is not by insisting that we get none
from you until we "earn it."
I for one try to be generous with everyone here, which I can do until
about the 10th iteration of a sarcastic attack, after which I am
forced to start making jokes. Mostly.
--Mike
Dear all,
This is to inform you that Wikimania dates has been changed to 17-19 July.
We hope this fits better with the Euro/American week formats; so as to avoid
a conference that would cross two weeks and end on a Monday, as in the
previous date.
Thank you,
Moushira
Hi!
Japanese Wikipedia won the first prize of "Web of the year" in Japan!
Congratulation!
http://woy2007.sbcr.jp/ (Japanese page)
# Sadly, they don't make English page :(
We won the prize last year also, this is for 2nd straight year.
Thanks,
Allow me to be the first to say "What the hell?" Am I the only one who
is absolutely outraged by this? We hear Erik call for transparency and
openness, yet he gets hired for a position there was no announcement
about? I call BS.
-Chad H.
Dear community
The board recently passed a resolution, which you will find below
In the aftermath of the resignation of Michael Davis (effective october
31th, 2007) and Erik Moëller (effective december 15th, 2007), the board
confirms its will to replace the two former board members, as well as
its committment to expand the number of members on the board of
directors at the earliest convenience, up to a number of 11 members
maximum. Due to its commitment to involve members from the community, at
least half of the new members will be appointed for a term ending at the
next board elections, in june 2008.
-----------
Florence
Hello
It is my great pleasure to announce you the new stewards, freshly
promoted by Cary.
.anaconda
Andre Engels (hmmm, not so new)
Dungodung
Jusjih
Lar
Millosh
Spacebirdy
Thogo
Wpedzich
Zirland
DerHexer
Nick1915
Welcome to all of you !
Ant
Andrew Whitworth wrote:
>> I have to say that I agree with Birgitte here. For me, Foundation-l has
>> becoming incresasingly useless as a mailing list because it is so
>> frequently dominated by people who seem to be very "bitter and
>> mean-spirited" to the point that they are on the attack no matter what
>> happens.
>
> So ignore them, block them, ban them, etc. If there are people whose
> mean-spiritedness is preventing us from conducting legitimate business
> here, or is preventing this list from being a useful resource, those
> people should be removed from it. It is not anybody's duty or
> responsibility to "put up" with people who are unhelpful,
> unproductive, and even counter-productive. This list has a purpose and
> "empowering trolls" or "dealing with trolls" is not that purpose.
>
>> I am unsure what we should do about foundation-l. It has become a
>> sewer. It is difficult to balance our very strong desire for an
>> unmoderated forum where people can feel comfortable making strong
>> criticisms (nothing wrong with that!) with a forum where trolls are
>> exhausting a lot of good people and spreading misinformation due to the
>> inability of others to keep up with the sheer volume of malice.
>
> I don't see why this list has to be "unmoderated". None of the wikis
> are unmoderated, and some of them are very strictly moderated. Set
> rules: legitimate users will follow them, trolls will not. This is not
> to say that the rules need to be complicated, or strict, etc. The
> rules may not even need to be explicit, set some moderators who have
> good judgement and tell them that they will "know it when they see
> it". Hell, it works for pornography in the US, it will work for trolls
> on the mailinglist.
>
> I would also submit a small disagreement that this list has become a
> "sewer", but it's effectiveness has certainly been limited
> unnecessarily.
>
> --Andrew Whitworth
I fully agree with you Andrew.
Several years ago, I was not really supportive of putting people in
moderation, but in the past few months, I became a little bit bolder in
that regard. When I feel that some posters are really going too far, I
put them in moderation. For example, I did that in the past with
Anthony, and more recently with Geni. I think it was rather helpful.
Ant
This was noted a few days ago on the Fundraising FAQ, but to help spread
the word, the fundraiser is now scheduled to end on January 3. This
extension of time will allow some more testing with the new fundraising
site. Also, considering that donations increased over the weekend
following Thanksgiving in the US, if people are feeling more generous
over the holidays (or just trying to beat the end of the tax year), so
much the better.
--Michael Snow