Ryan Kaldari wrote:
... [we're] in the process of hooking up Open Web Analytics http://www.openwebanalytics.com
It's great to see that donor logs are going in to a database instead of just a text file, but multiple regression in SQL is absurdly difficult because of the limitations of SQL, so I still recommend R, in particular: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RMySQL/RMySQL.pdf and http://wiener.math.csi.cuny.edu/Statistics/R/simpleR/stat006.html I will ask Arthur Richards for data coding formats.
I predict that multiple response checkboxes will do better than the more constraining radio buttons, but there is no reason that they should not be measured as any other independent variable. It is probably a lot more important to measure the number of earmarks offered: 0-26. There is plenty of reason to believe that showing 26 options will have a slight advantage over 25, but I can't see the test results from the Red Cross (they measure the things which increase donations of blood much more carefully than money, at least in their publications that I've been able to find.) Don't forget the control case where no donor selections are offered. Optimization requires measurement, and it is easy to measure offering a lot of options up front.
Do you think that variations on the disclaimer should also be tried? I think there is reason to believe something terse might result in more donations, e.g.: "These options are advisory only." and/or "The Wikimedia Foundation reserves the right to override donor selections, cancel any project, and use any funds for any purpose." and/or "All donations are discretionary, these options are offered for polling purposes only." or some combination. What does Mike Godwin think a good set of disclaimers to test might be?
I conflated the proposed stimulus list down to 25 non-default items and enumerated them with letters of the alphabet so that everyone would understand that it is feasible to test additional proposals as well. I have not yet surveyed the Village Pumps or mailing lists for additional stimulatory ideas but I hope people who have or who see anything missing will suggest at least five more. Translations would be great, too.
(default) Use my donation where the need is greatest. A. Auction the order of search failover links to search engine companies. B. Broaden demographics of active editors. C. Compensate people who submit improvements to the extent that they are necessary and sufficient. D. Display most popular related articles. E. Enhance automation of project tasks. F. Enhance site performance in underserved geographic regions. G. Enhance visualizations of projects and their editing activity. H. Establish journalism awards, expense accounts and compensation for independent Wikinews reporters, fact checkers, photographers and proofreaders. I. Establish secure off-site backup copies. J. Establish simple Wikipedias for beginning readers in languages other than English. K. Improve math formula rendering. L. Increase the number of active editors. M. Increase the number of articles, images, and files. N. Increase the number of unique readers. O. Make it easier for people to add recorded audio pronunciations. P. Obtain expert article assessments. Q. Obtain reader quality assessments. R. Perform external code reviews. S. Perform independent usability testing. T. Produce regular snapshots and archives. U. Retain more active editors. V. Strengthen Wikimedia Foundation financial stability. W. Support a thriving research community. X. Support an easier format to write quiz questions. Y. Support more reliable server uptime. Z. Support offline editing.
On 4 September 2010 23:26, James Salsman jsalsman@gmail.com wrote:
I conflated the proposed stimulus list down to 25 non-default items and enumerated them with letters of the alphabet so that everyone would understand that it is feasible to test additional proposals as well. I have not yet surveyed the Village Pumps or mailing lists for additional stimulatory ideas but I hope people who have or who see anything missing will suggest at least five more. Translations would be great, too.
To point out what is probably obvious but can always do with reiteration:
Whatever is in this list will be run through an English->Moron translator, twice, then become a news story in that form. Particularly in the next couple of months.
Trust me on this one - we are (a) incredibly famous and mainstream (b) the space-filling option of choice on a slow news day.[*] Whatever is done here will be garbled, misunderstood and misconstrued then spread around the world in that form.
So do please do this, but run it past everyone first :-)
[*] http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/wikipedia-spri...
- d.
Just to be clear, we are not doing fundraising earmarks for the 2010 fundraiser. As I mentioned earlier, this was discussed earlier in the year and ruled out for the current fundraiser. Any such plan would need thorough discussion, both with the community and the WMF. In addition, we usually start planning our testing methodology and analytics goals 4 or 5 months ahead of the fundraiser so that development can be completed well before the fundraiser begins. That said, I think earmarks are definitely an idea that should be discussed for the future. Did you have any thoughts on the objections that I listed in the previous email? Right now the Foundation is generally opposed to the idea of fundraising earmarks, so we would need to address those objections before we start talking about any implementation details.
Thanks for the R links. The research and analytics people here are very big fans of R. The links you sent look like they could be useful for us.
Ryan Kaldari
On 9/4/10 3:26 PM, James Salsman wrote:
It's great to see that donor logs are going in to a database instead of just a text file, but multiple regression in SQL is absurdly difficult because of the limitations of SQL, so I still recommend R, in particular: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RMySQL/RMySQL.pdf and http://wiener.math.csi.cuny.edu/Statistics/R/simpleR/stat006.html I will ask Arthur Richards for data coding formats.
I predict that multiple response checkboxes will do better than the more constraining radio buttons, but there is no reason that they should not be measured as any other independent variable. It is probably a lot more important to measure the number of earmarks offered: 0-26. There is plenty of reason to believe that showing 26 options will have a slight advantage over 25, but I can't see the test results from the Red Cross (they measure the things which increase donations of blood much more carefully than money, at least in their publications that I've been able to find.) Don't forget the control case where no donor selections are offered. Optimization requires measurement, and it is easy to measure offering a lot of options up front.
Do you think that variations on the disclaimer should also be tried? I think there is reason to believe something terse might result in more donations, e.g.: "These options are advisory only." and/or "The Wikimedia Foundation reserves the right to override donor selections, cancel any project, and use any funds for any purpose." and/or "All donations are discretionary, these options are offered for polling purposes only." or some combination. What does Mike Godwin think a good set of disclaimers to test might be?
I conflated the proposed stimulus list down to 25 non-default items and enumerated them with letters of the alphabet so that everyone would understand that it is feasible to test additional proposals as well. I have not yet surveyed the Village Pumps or mailing lists for additional stimulatory ideas but I hope people who have or who see anything missing will suggest at least five more. Translations would be great, too.
(default) Use my donation where the need is greatest. A. Auction the order of search failover links to search engine companies. B. Broaden demographics of active editors. C. Compensate people who submit improvements to the extent that they are necessary and sufficient. D. Display most popular related articles. E. Enhance automation of project tasks. F. Enhance site performance in underserved geographic regions. G. Enhance visualizations of projects and their editing activity. H. Establish journalism awards, expense accounts and compensation for independent Wikinews reporters, fact checkers, photographers and proofreaders. I. Establish secure off-site backup copies. J. Establish simple Wikipedias for beginning readers in languages other than English. K. Improve math formula rendering. L. Increase the number of active editors. M. Increase the number of articles, images, and files. N. Increase the number of unique readers. O. Make it easier for people to add recorded audio pronunciations. P. Obtain expert article assessments. Q. Obtain reader quality assessments. R. Perform external code reviews. S. Perform independent usability testing. T. Produce regular snapshots and archives. U. Retain more active editors. V. Strengthen Wikimedia Foundation financial stability. W. Support a thriving research community. X. Support an easier format to write quiz questions. Y. Support more reliable server uptime. Z. Support offline editing.
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