Hi Romaine,
And the outcome is ridiculous. This is not a compromise. The Italian WLM team has been crashed under the weight and preponderance of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Well - it *is* a compromise. It isn't what you want and I think I understand your reasons for thinking it will have a very big impact. I know from plenty of past experience of being a volunteer disagreeing with WMF staff how frustrating this is (though actually I think the impact on WLM will be less than you expect in this case).
But it is plainly not the case that the WMF has just blundered ahead with what it was going to do anyway. And even if WMF were not involved at all and there were some other method of allocating banner space, if Autumn has the peak fundraising potential and is when WLM happens, there will always be some kind of clash somewhere, and someone or other will not get what they want. No number of emotive emails will change that.
Regards,
Chris