geni, 31/12/2011 10:22:
And they are also used for displaying bilingual messages, which is very useful for areas in which you can't be sure whether people prefer English or the local language, like India.
Except both versions I was getting were in English.
I guess you mean the set of banners about «This is it. Last day to make a tax-deductible contribution to keep Wikipedia free in 2012» (and variations[1]). I'd be interested to know whether Sue was true when she said that donors don't care much about tax deducibility, but here we have to consider also the "last [3] day[s]", "pay the bills" and blinking banner effects.
Nemo
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate&offset=2339&limit=57