There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this is happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong and it should stop.
"Deleting Wikipedia?" was the subject line of the e-mail I received as well. It also, as usual, included the claim that if enough donations were received the campaign would end early. That hasn't been the case in the past when campaign goals are met.
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this is happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong and it should stop.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On the contrary, Nathan, every single time I have asked them to hold the campaigns open after the fundraising goal has been met (most if not almost all of the past ten years) in order to, for example, fund the Endowment or save more money before the Endowment existed, they have refused to do so. Is there some document I am missing?
Best regards, Jim
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 3:16 PM Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
"Deleting Wikipedia?" was the subject line of the e-mail I received as well. It also, as usual, included the claim that if enough donations were received the campaign would end early. That hasn't been the case in the past when campaign goals are met.
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this is happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong and it should stop.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
"That hasn't been the case in the past when campaign goals are met."
The fundraising team has actively sought to reduce the impact that raising donations has on readers. We covered this in a blog last year about the 2016 fundraiser:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/03/fundraising-banner-limit/
We managed to reduce this again through last years fundraising and actively curtailed the number and frequency of banners that our readers saw.
With regards to email we only send three fundraising asks to any one individual as it stands which is a fraction of what most charities send to their previous donors. In the case of last year we actually held off sending the third fundraising email to a significant portion of individuals precisely because we were reaching our campaign goal.
So I would argue this is actually the case and that if we can, we will.
Regards Seddon
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:16 PM Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
"Deleting Wikipedia?" was the subject line of the e-mail I received as well. It also, as usual, included the claim that if enough donations were received the campaign would end early. That hasn't been the case in the past when campaign goals are met.
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this
is
happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong
and
it should stop.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hey Pine,
I appreciate and understand your feedback about this subject line.
For some time we have been trying to find an alternative subject line to -/This is a little awkward/-. That line works and works very well but we have found it very difficult to effectively translate and adapt into other languages, and despite our best efforts have struggled to find an alternative.
We first tested -/Deleting Wikipedia?/- as a subject line a couple of weeks ago and it was the only winning variant in hundreds of tests. We retested in case it was a statistical fluke and continued to see it perform well. The effectiveness of this subject line for the most part does not come from its apparent clickbaiting. The change in the number of people opening the emails was relatively small and unsubscribes remained extremely low. The big driver in terms of its success was from a significant increase in those people who opened AND read our email appeal. We posed a question and donors were motivated to donate when presented with the idea of imagining a world without Wikipedia.
Our motivation behind this sort of subject line is the fact that in three countries today it is already as if Wikipedia does not exist. The risk that this could happen in more countries is greater now that it ever has been. Censorship, impediments to free speech and over regulation of copyright are threats that Wikipedia, Wikimedia and its communities face every single day and it is with that context that we want to lead.
Any email that included this subject line came with at least some context to flesh out the idea, i.e., “If Wikipedia were deleted, it would be a great loss to the world,”, but going forward it is our full intention to make even clearer that we intend for the donor to imagine a world without Wikipedia and the threats it faces every day, not threaten that it is going away.
Our plan is to continue to testing on this theme, exploring censorship and copyright restrictions as well as our increasing role as the backbone of knowledge on the internet, and help donors see that knowledge can and is threatened all the time. We are definitely and eagerly open to any feedback, suggestions and ideas you might have.
Best, Seddon
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this is happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong and it should stop.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
I believe that the subject line was a moral and leadership failure. Effective or not, I would respectfully suggest that you stop using it immediately and begin further discussions with the community about the organization's goals and purpose.
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 5:13 PM Joseph Seddon jseddon@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hey Pine,
I appreciate and understand your feedback about this subject line.
For some time we have been trying to find an alternative subject line to -/This is a little awkward/-. That line works and works very well but we have found it very difficult to effectively translate and adapt into other languages, and despite our best efforts have struggled to find an alternative.
We first tested -/Deleting Wikipedia?/- as a subject line a couple of weeks ago and it was the only winning variant in hundreds of tests. We retested in case it was a statistical fluke and continued to see it perform well. The effectiveness of this subject line for the most part does not come from its apparent clickbaiting. The change in the number of people opening the emails was relatively small and unsubscribes remained extremely low. The big driver in terms of its success was from a significant increase in those people who opened AND read our email appeal. We posed a question and donors were motivated to donate when presented with the idea of imagining a world without Wikipedia.
Our motivation behind this sort of subject line is the fact that in three countries today it is already as if Wikipedia does not exist. The risk that this could happen in more countries is greater now that it ever has been. Censorship, impediments to free speech and over regulation of copyright are threats that Wikipedia, Wikimedia and its communities face every single day and it is with that context that we want to lead.
Any email that included this subject line came with at least some context to flesh out the idea, i.e., “If Wikipedia were deleted, it would be a great loss to the world,”, but going forward it is our full intention to make even clearer that we intend for the donor to imagine a world without Wikipedia and the threats it faces every day, not threaten that it is going away.
Our plan is to continue to testing on this theme, exploring censorship and copyright restrictions as well as our increasing role as the backbone of knowledge on the internet, and help donors see that knowledge can and is threatened all the time. We are definitely and eagerly open to any feedback, suggestions and ideas you might have.
Best, Seddon
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this
is
happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong
and
it should stop.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Seddon
*Community and Audience Engagement Associate* *Advancement (Fundraising), Wikimedia Foundation* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi Seddon,
While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging people not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I believe that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable information.
I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there is not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer their time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
Hi all,
Thank you for sharing your concerns. We hear them and we take them seriously. *As of today, we have pulled this subject line from our testing rotation.*
On the Fundraising team, we pride ourselves on making data-driven decisions, and there are many types of data inputs we process outside of dollar amount raised. For example, how many people choose to unsubscribe from our list or submit an abuse complaint when we send an email? Does a certain subject line get very high opens but a low rate of donations per open--indicating that it is more clickbait than effective content? How much and what kind of feedback is our Donor Services team getting?
We watched these inputs closely while sending this subject line to donors. Our unsubscribe and abuse rates were low, the donation per open rate was even higher than usual, and while our Donor Services team flagged some negative responses from donors, they determined these comments were not in a significant volume.
That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging? This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be an ongoing challenge in our work.
We are grateful to be presented with this challenge and with the joy of telling millions of people about this movement. Thank you for caring so deeply, for all your contributions, and for keeping this feedback loop alive.
Sincerely, Caitlin
On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 1:47 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Seddon,
While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging people not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I believe that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable information.
I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there is not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer their time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Thank you very much for this update, Caitlin.
Yesterday I was thinking more about this issue, and today I was planning to append my earlier comments by saying that I realize that a fundraising appeal has some differences from an encyclopedia article in terms of writing style. Also, I realize that sometimes what seems good from one perspective is problematic from a different perspective.
Perhaps at a time when the Fundraising team is less busy, maybe in January, there could be an opportunity for a public discussion such as an IRC office hour, Hangouts meeting, and/or talk page discussion about how to incorporate community review of Fundraising messages prior to them going into production.
Thanks again for the update, and thanks for listening.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 5:17 PM Caitlin Cogdill ccogdill@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
Thank you for sharing your concerns. We hear them and we take them seriously. *As of today, we have pulled this subject line from our testing rotation.*
On the Fundraising team, we pride ourselves on making data-driven decisions, and there are many types of data inputs we process outside of dollar amount raised. For example, how many people choose to unsubscribe from our list or submit an abuse complaint when we send an email? Does a certain subject line get very high opens but a low rate of donations per open--indicating that it is more clickbait than effective content? How much and what kind of feedback is our Donor Services team getting?
We watched these inputs closely while sending this subject line to donors. Our unsubscribe and abuse rates were low, the donation per open rate was even higher than usual, and while our Donor Services team flagged some negative responses from donors, they determined these comments were not in a significant volume.
That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging? This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be an ongoing challenge in our work.
We are grateful to be presented with this challenge and with the joy of telling millions of people about this movement. Thank you for caring so deeply, for all your contributions, and for keeping this feedback loop alive.
Sincerely, Caitlin
On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 1:47 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Seddon,
While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging
people
not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I
believe
that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable information.
I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there
is
not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer
their
time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Caitlin Cogdill Senior Fundraising Email Manager Wikimedia Foundation
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
*https://donate.wikimedia.org https://donate.wikimedia.org/* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hello Caitlin,
Thank you for your feedback. Is there a comprehensive list of data inputs which are processed, and maybe even more extensive information on your processes? That might come as an interesting source of inspiration for other stakeholders in the movement, whether to provide more feedback or feed their own processes.
Cheers
Le 16/11/2018 à 18:16, Caitlin Cogdill a écrit :
Hi all,
Thank you for sharing your concerns. We hear them and we take them seriously. *As of today, we have pulled this subject line from our testing rotation.*
On the Fundraising team, we pride ourselves on making data-driven decisions, and there are many types of data inputs we process outside of dollar amount raised. For example, how many people choose to unsubscribe from our list or submit an abuse complaint when we send an email? Does a certain subject line get very high opens but a low rate of donations per open--indicating that it is more clickbait than effective content? How much and what kind of feedback is our Donor Services team getting?
We watched these inputs closely while sending this subject line to donors. Our unsubscribe and abuse rates were low, the donation per open rate was even higher than usual, and while our Donor Services team flagged some negative responses from donors, they determined these comments were not in a significant volume.
That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging? This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be an ongoing challenge in our work.
We are grateful to be presented with this challenge and with the joy of telling millions of people about this movement. Thank you for caring so deeply, for all your contributions, and for keeping this feedback loop alive.
Sincerely, Caitlin
On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 1:47 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Seddon,
While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging people not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I believe that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable information.
I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there is not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer their time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 6:17 PM Caitlin Cogdill ccogdill@wikimedia.org wrote:
That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging? This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be an ongoing challenge in our work.
Caitlin, thank you for caring about the concerns that were raised and taking action to address them. I can imagine that it is difficult to know how volunteers feel about some action or message. It would be nice if in case of doubt there would be some invitation to participate assessing the lines or suggesting alternatives. I'm sure that in this list there are some people who would be willing to offer their perspective on how the message comes across. As Pine has suggested a public discussion on how to incorporate community review would be interesting.
Regards, Micru
Hello Joseph,
Thank you for clarifying the context. For being able to even better understand the topic, could we have a copy of the full email, or a link to a page containing its text?
Here is a direct permanent link to the discussion Pine was referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=8...https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=869210030#Latest_WMF_email (conversation might have moved forward at the time you read this)
Interestingly a thread was also launched this week on Wikimedia France on the same topic of communication within fund-raising campaign (the one for Wikimedia France)[1]. The main difference with this thread is that it was launched by Amélie Cabon, the chapter fundraising officer, asking feedback on the communication material she produced so far. Similar discomforts were raised on punchline wordings that, citing how a misleading statement was evoking fakenews. I don't know how the email "Delete Wikipedia?" redaction was realized, with or without community feedback, if feedback was requested and given, it would be interesting to give references.
Personnaly, I think that "Deleting Wikipedia?" is fine as a punchline, if it does the job of catching and keeping attention toward a detailed explanation of what is the campaign about and make clear and and truthful statements of the expected outcomes depending on the campaign results (and possibly to make situation even clearer, things that are not depending on campaign results). So to my mind, as long as the punchline let open an honest development without contradiction, what matter is the full text.
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.fr/arc/comm/2018-11/msg00003.html
Cheers, Mathieu
Le 14/11/2018 à 02:12, Joseph Seddon a écrit :
Hey Pine,
I appreciate and understand your feedback about this subject line.
For some time we have been trying to find an alternative subject line to -/This is a little awkward/-. That line works and works very well but we have found it very difficult to effectively translate and adapt into other languages, and despite our best efforts have struggled to find an alternative.
We first tested -/Deleting Wikipedia?/- as a subject line a couple of weeks ago and it was the only winning variant in hundreds of tests. We retested in case it was a statistical fluke and continued to see it perform well. The effectiveness of this subject line for the most part does not come from its apparent clickbaiting. The change in the number of people opening the emails was relatively small and unsubscribes remained extremely low. The big driver in terms of its success was from a significant increase in those people who opened AND read our email appeal. We posed a question and donors were motivated to donate when presented with the idea of imagining a world without Wikipedia.
Our motivation behind this sort of subject line is the fact that in three countries today it is already as if Wikipedia does not exist. The risk that this could happen in more countries is greater now that it ever has been. Censorship, impediments to free speech and over regulation of copyright are threats that Wikipedia, Wikimedia and its communities face every single day and it is with that context that we want to lead.
Any email that included this subject line came with at least some context to flesh out the idea, i.e., “If Wikipedia were deleted, it would be a great loss to the world,”, but going forward it is our full intention to make even clearer that we intend for the donor to imagine a world without Wikipedia and the threats it faces every day, not threaten that it is going away.
Our plan is to continue to testing on this theme, exploring censorship and copyright restrictions as well as our increasing role as the backbone of knowledge on the internet, and help donors see that knowledge can and is threatened all the time. We are definitely and eagerly open to any feedback, suggestions and ideas you might have.
Best, Seddon
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:04 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a report from a user on Jimbo's talk page on ENWP regarding receiving fundraising a fundraising email with the subject line "[NAME] - Deleting Wikipedia?"
In previous years I've disagreed with some of WMF's fundraising choices, and it would be unfortunate if in the era of "fake news" becoming mainstream WMF chooses to continue to be a part of the problem. If this is happening then I request that WMF put a stop to it. Regardless of how effective it is to send misleading fundraising appeals and that WMF has received minimal repercussions for doing so over the years, it's wrong and it should stop.
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