Hey all,
I feel a little bad raising this because I know there was some community vetting of fundraising initiatives that I ignored, but please forgive me. I brought this up in the Wikimedia Weekly Facebook group asking where best to raise the issue, and it was suggested I post here.
I was looking something up on my phone just now, apparently not logged in to Wikipedia, and I discovered that mobile users in the US (and presumably elsewhere) are being shown enormous ads. It took four full page scrolls for me to reach the content of the article I was hoping to read. Even once I made it past the ads at the top of the page, I was greeted with a pop-in banner from the bottom of the page, as if I could possibly have not noticed the four pages of text asking me to donate. (Screenshots attached).
I understand that we need donations to keep the site running and all, but this seems excessive. I particularly worry for people who use assistive technology who are having to listen to or try to skip through four pages' worth of text-to-speech before they can get to what they want to know. The WMF needs donations, but I think we need to weigh the need for cash against the goal of providing free and accessible information to our readers. A couple of page scrolls might not seem like much, but I assume if they're off-putting to me (a reader with good vision and generally high tolerance for WMF money pleas) they'll be off-putting to others.
So much of this text could be cut out. I work for a marketing/sales company in a non-marketing role, and I've heard from colleagues that it's frustrating when people writing copy like this hear from people who are not educated about appealing to people, so I don't pretend to know better than you at the WMF or your consultants about how to write good donation copy. But to my (admittedly uneducated eye), copy like "It's a little awkward to ask you, this Friday, as we're sure you are busy and we don't want to interrupt you." and "We can't afford to feel embarrassed, asking you to make a donation—just like you should never feel embarrassed when you have to ask Wikipedia for information." seems like at best it's not adding anything besides more words to have to scroll past, and at worst it's pretty cringey to read. Are you really expecting people will read all four pages?
– Molly (GorillaWarfare)