I just wanted to write in to compliment all those who are behind the banners on the site right now-- Personal Appeals from individual editors with inspiring visions about how Wikimedia can help change the world for the better.

This, to me, is is what a 'Wikimedia Fundraiser' should feel like-- it's hopeful, it's upbeat. It's visionary, it's populist. It's polished and sleek without boring and homogenous. It pulls at the readers heartstrings, and it effectively communicates 'why' everyone cares so much about this movement. The personal appeals remind us that we're not "just a cool website" run by a gaggle of geeks-- we're a social movement trying to help bring light to all the corners of the globe.

Personal Appeals for Individual Editors keeps the greatest things about the Personal Appeal from Jimmy Wales banner that's been so successful. This only downside to running the Jimmy banner is Jimmy's voice is only one voice-- and Wikimedia isn't about one voice, it's about billions of voices and billions of visions, all working together.

Thus, I love that the new banners are featuring a multiplicity of visions-- each personal appeal is, in fact, personal. We all have different reasons that people from all over the world have come together to contribute and edit together-- a beautiful thing indeed. And that beauty has been allowed, in these current ads, to really shine through to our readers-- readers who may know about the site's usefulness, but maybe don't know about the passion of our community and the visions we share for transforming the world for the better.

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Last year, the banners seemed to be a lot more monolithic in their tone, a lot more generic and imperative in their plea for funds. They just didn't seem to capture the true awesomeness of wikimedia, they seemed like 'something an ad company would design'. (Mind you, my aesthetic-based predictions aside, last year's banners were a record-breaking success, which is why I'm glad we hired professionals to do this, instead of just letting me make those decisions. :) )

But, as impressed as I was with last year's fundraiser, I'm really loving this year's banners. The personal appeals from individual editors are a campaign I'm proud to call our own. It "feels" like us. It has the voice I kinda want Wikimedia to project. This new campaign doesn't 'feel' like it was designed by some cookie-cutter PR firm, this campaign feels like it was designed by "us", the members of the movement. (And mind you, I don't actually know who did this, so if professionals did it, that's just an even greater testament to their skill at having 'got' the wikimedia movement".

The fundraiser is probably a thankless job. A few people have to try to do very important work, while everyone else gets to stand back and advise, instruct, critique, and satirize. Since I've show up a couple of times in the past to complain when I felt things we were on the wrong track, so I felt especially called to come and speak up when I felt so passionately that those same people are people are doing a truly stupendous job.

So great work! I think new banners are an invaluable tool-- communicating not just our need for funding, but also sharing our amazing vision with our readers. Many thanks to all who are working so hard on this!

Alec