Hi Folks --
I would suggest that if you are unhappy with the banners you apply your
energy to the annual planning process[1]. As long as the budget goes up 20%
year over year and page views fall, the Fundraising team will need to crank
up the banners.
It's worth pointing out that Fundraising is one of the strongest voices for
fiscal restraint at the Foundation.
-Toby
[1]
On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 4:09 PM, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I want to be clear about my previous message -- I am
not questioning any
individual person's integrity in the process, and I know from firsthand
experience that a tremendous amount of good work goes into this stuff. But
I think the process that has evolved around developing the campaign is
broken.
In Megan's message, I see a great deal of emphasis on the specific points
that are attributable to community suggestions/requests. But there is a
bigger point that gets lost: It's not about where the ideas come from, it's
about whether the final result "gets it right."
If the WMF produced mission-compatible banners without any community
consultation at all, I'd be happy, and I think most others would be too.
Running an open process is not the right way to measure success here. An
open process is one of many ways to surface problems, and maybe to generate
ideas; but it's not the be-all end-all.
The fund-raising department is clearly held accountable on its
easily-measured performance. It needs to also be held accountable to the
mission. How to do that is a difficult design and management problem, and I
don't pretend to have the perfect answer. But it's something that needs to
be done.
Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 3:58 PM, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
I agree, that banner does not reflect the values
of this movement. Pure
and simple; it's not a grey area, and not worth my time to discuss for
the
97th time.
Personally, I long ago gave up participating in these discussions, for
the
most part -- because the same valid points get
made over and over again,
and the same *AWFUL* errors are made year after year in the fund-raising
campaign.
Leila's post here is heartening, and I'm glad that somebody has the
energy
to articulate the concerns so well. I, myself, do
not; I have simply lost
faith in the integrity of the Wikimedia Foundation's fund-raising
operation. I am, honestly, ashamed to tell people that I used to work in
the fund-raising department there (though I believe the work we did was
valuable).
I recently heard from a high-ranking executive at a software company. She
told me that she had given money to the Wikimedia Foundation, and then
looked into the WMF's budget, and the messages in the campaign she had
responded to. The word she used to describe her feeling was "mortified."
She had considered asking for her money back, but had decided against it.
Fortunately, she was sophisticated enough not apply her negative feelings
to Wikipedia, but rather to the Wikimedia Foundation. But can the WMF
afford to assume that will always be the case?
Apparently, the thinking thus far is, "yes."
-Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 2:56 PM, Leila Zia <leila(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hi Megan,
>
> Thank you for the update and all the hard work the team has done during
> Q1.
> My comments below.
>
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Megan Hernandez <
mhernandez(a)wikimedia.org
> >
> wrote:
>
>
> > The team has used this first quarter to test a wide variety of brand
new
> > banners. From images, to banners
highlighting photos from Commons, and
> > different messages, we’ve found a few new ways to share the
fundraising
> > message with Wikipedia readers. With
updated designs, we’ve ended the
> > quarter with a banner that performs roughly 20% better than the best-
> > performing banner from last quarter.
>
>
> I saw that banner and I want to do all I can to help you not use it even
> if
> it performs 20% better. I put my story in p.s. so it's easier to skip
for
> whoever chooses to skip. This is a true
story. :-\
>
>
> > Better performing banners are required
> > to raise a higher budget with declining traffic. We’ll continue
testing
> new
> > banners into the next quarter and sharing highlights as we go.
> >
>
> I've said this couple of times in the past through different channels
> (sorry to those of you who have heard this before) but I think it's key
to
> repeat it here just so we are all clear about
what we know and what we
> don't know.
>
> We know that our pageviews are not growing globally (depending on how
you
> look at the trend and predictions, they are
going down with a slow slope
> or
> are almost flat, neither case is good.).
>
> We also know that a higher budget means more work for Furndraising to
meet
> the budget.
>
> We do not know the relation between the decline in pageviews and our
> ability to raise money, we do not have research evidence for the above
> statement given the data we have, so I highly encourage all of us not to
> repeat this statement (even though it sounds very intuitive) until we
show
> such evidence because the more we say it, the
more we believe it. Ellery
> explains what we know and don't know about this specific topic when I
ask
> him a question about this in Metrics Meeting
in April 2015. That
> discussion
> is recorded starting minute 37, second 38 here
> <
>
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Mee…
> >
> .
>
> Best,
> Leila
>
> p.s. Here is the story:
> I open my laptop at 5:30am to check few definitions on Wikipedia for an
> upcoming early morning meeting. The room is dark and the only source of
> light is my laptop, I go to Wikipedia and I see that banner
> <
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising#/media/File:Sept2015BannerEx.png
> >.
> I'm still sleepy, and probably my mind is not functioning the way it
> normally does, nevertheless, here is what comes to my mind: I have a
> sudden
> feeling of fear. I see a very black background, and I think someone very
> important has died. I look a bit more, and I see some red colors, then I
> think something in the order of SOPA has happened. I'm getting quite
> nervous. I look at the text, but it's too long for me to parse it at
that
> moment with the thoughts I have in the
background. I look more at the
> background, I see some orange colors, some yellow colors, and a little
> human circled, I first think that whole color combination is a flame
(red,
> orange, yellow, and the semi shape of a
flame), then I think someone is
> jailed/executed. My eyes finally manage to see the right-hand-side of
the
> page, and I see there are dollar signs and
numbers. I sigh in relief,
and
> then I get really upset (though I manage to
pass that stage soon). Now,
if
> I was not involved in the movement, I'm
not sure if I would pay or not
> (maybe I would) seeing that banner, but because I'm in the Movement, I
got
> really sad seeing myself going through that
experience because I know
> more.
> I also acknowledge that different people have different backgrounds and
> experiences in life. What I see as a sign of death and war, may not be a
> signal for many other people (though the color black is almost
universally
> used for signalling death), and I acknowledge
that you cannot
accommodate
> everyone. But please be aware, some people
get really scared seeing this
> kind of banner.
>
> I said the story above, but I also want to say that I understand the
> pressure on you. I've said it here
> <
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2015-16_Fundraising_ideas#Banne…
> >
> (and btw, huge thanks for being open to suggestions :-), and I'm saying
it
> here as well: I'm happy to help us to fix
such an experience for our
> users.
> Please let me know if you're open to test new designs. I'm more than
happy
> to help you for some time for us to bring in
more designers and
community
> members into this conversation. I'm sure
we can do this.
>
> >
> > --
> >
> > Megan Hernandez
> >
> > Director of Online Fundraising
> > Wikimedia Foundation
> > _______________________________________________
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