--- Delirium <delirium(a)hackish.org> wrote:
I can't make any claims to be a representative
user, but I personally
find these sorts of things *really* annoying. When I'm trying to read
an encyclopedia article, I don't want a "give us money!" link at the
top, especially one with exclamation marks in it! If it were some sort
of big bar thing, that'd be so much the worse, especially since it
doesn't go away when I actually *do* give money. Letting me hide them
would be nice.
Slashdot allows subscribers to turn off advertisements. Perhaps we could do the
same thing except for donation notices? A skyscrapper donation button might
work best since it allows the article content to be higher. I still am not
gun-ho for such a thing, but I would not oppose it.
I also think if these things become a regular
occurance, you're going to
see the donations rate get lower each time. People are wiling to donate
rapidly for exceptional circumstances (like the k5 fundraiser, or the
first Wikimedia fundraiser), but using them as a normal revenue stream
doesn't sound that promising, imo, since it makes it sound like we're
perpetually doing "emergency" fundraising, which starts to sound like
"crying wolf" after a while.
Non-profits very regularly have fund drives and very regularly bring in
millions of dollars. The National Public Radio Station in my area brings in
over a million dollars from listeners each year and their listenership is much
less than our readership. So I don't see any logic in your statement.
This is also *not* emergency funding. We are starting to move away from that
and move toward a more regular fund drive cycle (I would like one each quarter
in order to more cleanly meet budgetary goals - which will also be tracked by
quarter).
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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