Wikipedia-l October 2003

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82 participants
190 discussions

donations
by Anthere 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

I confirm that two french people tried in various ways to donate and met impossibility. Yann donated through paypal system with a french card last june. It was also mentionned that each country had a different set up. A swiss editor said it worked for him. That does not necessarily mean it is working for french people. The browsers are ok. Hence the conclusion is either that paypal worked with french banks last june but does not anymore, or that the setting up of this specific payment has got a problem. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Please change the embarrassing donations message
by James Duffy 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

> >"We are trying to make > > Wikipedia faster and more responsive. You can help by making a >donation." > > I hope this satisfies your concerns. > Please please reword the donation line on the pages. It is disastrous in terms of PR. We know we have a problem on wiki right now, but the current wording highlights the flaws in a way that is never done in PR. Rule number 1: NEVER EVER EVER draw attention to your failings. At present what it is implies is ''wiki has a problem. Wiki isn't working right. We need money to fix it. If we don't get it, it isn't going to work right. It implies 1. That wiki is flawed; 2. We are /trying/ to fix it, but trying doesn't mean we will succeed. 3. That wiki is in so much difficulty it has to beg for money to make itself usable. PR people would hang themselves in shame if they were responsible for sending out such a message. The message should be spun positively, not negatively. What it should say is, Wiki's phenomenal growth requires constant upgrading of technology to give you the best service possible. Giving that service requires funding. You now can donate money to help your wikipedia remain the fastest growing encyclopædia on the internet. For more information, see [[Wikipedia donations]]. That wording, trimmed down and tightened as necessary, sends a different message to our current message. 1. Wiki is a phenomenal success; 2. We need funds to continue that success; 3. You can help /your/ wiki stay ahead of the rest. It is positive, not negative, motivational not begging. It tells people 'join in our success', not 'we are trying to fix our problems but badly need money'. Please change the current cringe-enducing message. JT _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Re: [Wikipedia-l] Please change the embarrassing donations message
by James Duffy 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

> >JT wrote: > >Wiki's phenomenal growth requires constant upgrading > >of technology to give you the best service possible. Giving > >that service requires funding. You now can donate money to > >help your wikipedia remain the fastest growing encyclopædia > >on the internet. For more information, see [[Wikipedia donations]]. > >For God's sake James, that is WAY too long and your use of "Wiki" is like a >bad piece of bad chalk on the blackboard. It is either Wikipedia or >Wikimedia. There are more than one wiki if you haven't noticed yet. > Mav, I wasn't proposing a wording, When designing a soundbite, the first thing you do is define the core message. When you know /what/ you want to say then you tighten it to /say/ what you want to say. All I was doing was giving what I believe is the core message. Once we agree on what we want to say, we can work out how to say it. I made it clear in the message that I was not /proposing/ a text. Please re-read what I wrote and stop mis-interpreting it. JT _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Interstate charitable solicitations
by Jimmy Wales 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

http://www.charitychannel.com/forums/cyb-acc/resources/monaghan.html Perhaps a bit old, since it's from 1996, but I found this overview helpful. We of course want to do everything right, but as a practical matter I doubt we're the sort of entity that any aggressive attorney general would want to pursue. Likely they will have their hands full dealing with new-formed 'charities' which are attempting to make use of the 'charity' loophole in the do-not-call anti-telemarketing law. Or they go after those pseudo-charities who pretend to represent the police or whatever. But, as I say, of course we want to do everything the right way.

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Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

Fuzheado wrote: >My view as well. Shouldn't this mean we should rip >down the current text immediately or risk legal problems? >Why is it still up there if it's so blatantly improper? IANAL, but the current text is in the gray area since it does not explicitly ask for a donation. So it is not "blatantly improper" in that sense. It /is/ a bit long and sounds a tad like a plea for help, however. Find out how you can help support Wikipedia's phenomenal growth [here]. or even SV's version (which, IMO, is not as clear but does sound nicer): Find out how you can help [support] Wikipedia's phenomenal growth. are both much better. Either way, the message should not be on the printable version of pages. -- mav

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Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

>Isn't this what it's *supposed* to be, a solicitation?! :) No - we are providing them a link to a page where they can learn about donating. We /cannot/ legally solicit donations to anybody outside of Florida! Haven't you'all been paying attention? There is a big legal difference between "send us money" and "here is some information on how you help us out financially". --mav

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Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

Fuzheado wrote: >Something along the lines of: >"Find out how you can help support Wikipedia's phenomenal growth." Sold. Best wording so far (just need to add a [here] at the end). -- mav

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Re: Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

SV wrote: >"Help [[Wikipedia]] keep up with our [[community]]'s [[growth]] >by making a [donation]. No - the /only/ link should be the Wikimedia donation page. Alex is also probably going to say that that sounds too much like a solicitation. Something like: Learn how you can help us speed up {project name} [here]. Would be better. --mav

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Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

JT wrote: >Wiki's phenomenal growth requires constant upgrading >of technology to give you the best service possible. Giving >that service requires funding. You now can donate money to >help your wikipedia remain the fastest growing encyclopædia >on the internet. For more information, see [[Wikipedia donations]]. For God's sake James, that is WAY too long and your use of "Wiki" is like a bad piece of bad chalk on the blackboard. It is either Wikipedia or Wikimedia. There are more than one wiki if you haven't noticed yet. --mav

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Re: Please change the embarrassing donations message
by Daniel Mayer 08 Oct '03

08 Oct '03

Alex wrote: >OK how about: > Learn how to donate money [here] to help this project grow. Yes - I like that. But replace "this project" with {project name}. This Learn how you can help us speed up {project name} [here]. still may be better since it directly addresses something that may be annoying the reader (the slowness of the server). My version may therefore be more lucrative while avoiding potential put-off words like "donate" and "money". -- mav

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Wikipedia-l October 2003