Waerth wrote: Was it just me, or did the rate at which donations were coming in go up when the current banner went up? Oh, and I've just seen an OTRS ticket asking if Rupees can be added to the list of accepted currencies. (2007110810004377). Seems a reasonable request considering the size of India, and the relative affluence of those in the country who are online. Brian.

Florence Devouard wrote: In that case let us thank everyone who was involved in the new banner :) ! Thank you all. Waerth

On Nov 8, 2007 7:04 PM, Guillaume Paumier &lt;guillom.pom(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: I'm relieved to know I was not the sole person who got that idea ... but seriously ... how about? -- KIZU Naoko Wikiquote <http://wikiquote.org> is a free online project for building collections of quotations, hosted by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD

I am working on Erik's suggestion that we get celebrity endorsements. I have added a question to Wikinews' upcoming interview with the Dalai Lama's US representative to see if we can get Tensing to endorse the project. I've just finished sending an email to Sir Sean Connery's publicist asking if he'd give Wikimedia/Wikipedia his endorsement. At the moment I'm doing this via the IMDbPro free trial, but there's another service - contactvip.com. I've tried twice to get signed up for their $4 trial and had my CC rejected, likely since their system has a bizarre way of looking at Belgium. I've also forwarded the phone number for Oprah Winfrey's production company onto Jimbo, it was pointed out to me both are active in Africa - there may be a meeting of minds that can get us an endorsement there. As IMDb's most popular personality I've also asked if we can get Johnny Depp to say a few words. My trial of IMDbPro only lasts about a week, list all your suggestions and I'll see what we can do here about getting known names to endorse Wiki. Brian McNeil -----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of David Gerard Sent: 08 November 2007 11:55 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fundraising totals as of Oct 7,2007 @ 5:00 PM (EST) On 08/11/2007, Guillaume Paumier &lt;guillom.pom(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: If we can have good new banners every week, that'd be great! (Yes, I realise the current one was a *lot* of work ...) - d. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Waerth wrote: Letting that risk influence us is bowing to threatened censorship. I find that disgusting and totally unacceptable. I do not know the details of what the Great Firewall censors, or how we comport ourselves might influence the filters and blocks. We should NEVER be influenced by that. To me that is non-negotiable. Wikipedia/Wikinews/Wikiquote/et all are not censored. Nor should our efforts to get people to endorse the projects be. My partner is a Buddhist, and I honestly believe it would not be a big step to get Tensing Gyatso to say that editing Wikipedia and sharing your knowledge with others gives you good karma. Freely sharing knowledge is a Buddhist principle that they share with WMF. Brian McNeil

If that was indeed the case, my apologies for ranting. I'm alternately grinning from ear to ear as I find a contact and tearing my hair out when I find a profile without one. Before I get arrested for spamming does anyone else have ideas for people we can look for endorsements from? The suggestion has been made that we need a new banner every week-10 days to kick off a new spurt of donations. I'd love to get a grab-bag of celebrities endorsing Wikimedia/Wikipedia to run for one of those cycles. I have access to IMDbPro for this, I had problems with the signup for contactvip.com, but I have a fellow Wikinewsie looking at that for me. That could net a few more contact details. Brian. -----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Cary Bass Sent: 08 November 2007 15:07 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fundraising totals as of Oct 7, 2007 @ 5:00 PM (EST) Brian McNeil wrote: I think that Waerth was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with his comment--but I could be wrong... -- Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Support the Wikimedia Foundation today: http://donate.wikimedia.org Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Phone: 727.231.0101 Fax: 727.258.0207 E-Mail: cbass(a)wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Either way, we do need to be careful with things like this. The Dalai Lama endorsing us could be seen (incorrectly, of course, but that doesn't really matter) as us endorsing the Dalai Lama, which I think we'd all agree isn't something Wikimedia should be doing. (Nothing against the Dalai Lama, the same applies to any religious or political leaders.) Celebrities, in general, should be fairly safe, but religious and political figures should probably be avoided.

On Nov 8, 2007 4:11 AM, Brian McNeil &lt;brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org&gt; wrote: You can move tickets like that to the "wm-donations" queue (accessible by the e-mail address donate[at]wikimedia[dot]org). I believe there is a boilerplate for that response. -- Casey Brown Cbrown1023 --- Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to this address will probably get lost.