[Foundation-l] Donation banner and strongly negative reactions

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
With all respect, on the English Wikipedia there is a gadget that allows
signed in users to disable the fund raising banner. So what is the issue ?

When people take an interest in what Mr Wool has to say, they should in my
opinion look into what Mr Wool says and how he says it. When he was to write
a Wikipedia article it would be deleted because of the negative and
extremely non-neutral point of view. I would invite the people who take Mr
Wool seriously to go to his blog and analyse his tone and his message. Once
this is done and they are still inclined not to support the WMF, I would
shrug and consider it their right to do as they please.

 As to negative reactions to the fund raiser, they are a tradition.
Thanks,
       GerardM

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here are some areas on the English Wikipedia where the donation drive and
> banner have been discussed:
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Gadget/proposals#Bring_Back_Hide_Fundraiser_Notice
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Will_the_ugly_banner_go_away.3F<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Will_the_ugly_banner_go_away.3F>
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#.22Support_Wikipedia:_a_non-profit_project._Donate_Now_.3E.3E.22<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#.22Support_Wikipedia:_a_non-profit_project._Donate_Now_.3E.3E.22>
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Will_the_ugly_banner_go_away.3F<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Will_the_ugly_banner_go_away.3F>
>
> It has also been discussed a few times on the #wikipedia-en IRC channel.
>
> I don't know if other projects have had similar reactions, but I do know
> that some projects have disabled the banner. It was for a time not
> available
> on the Spanish Wikipedia, and remains unavailable (last I checked) at the
> Russian Wikibooks. A quick survey of interwiki links on the en.wp Barack
> Obama page suggests that most or all Wikipedia projects are displaying the
> banner now.
>
> My observation is that the comments have been almost universally negative,
> and in fact a number of people - including long time administrators and
> previous donors - have said that this year they will not be donating at
> all.
> Reasons have included the banner itself, a sense that the foundation does
> not use its money appropriately, or concerns related to allegations made by
> Danny Wool last spring.
>
> I don't remember this sort of strong negative reaction before - is it
> expected? Are we seeing something a little different this year in terms of
> reaction? Has it translated into any change in the pace of donations?
>
> Nathan
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