[Foundation-l] Designs and other fundraiser updates

[Erik Moeller]

2008/10/22 Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com>:
> 1) The slogan "Wikipedia is a non-profit" sounds weird to me.
> Technically, Wikipedia is not "'a" non-profit (which in my English as
> a second language view of the world, means organisations) . However,
> Wikipedia is non-profi, ie. the project is not meant for profit.

I think the texts all would benefit from some polish. The core goal
here is to communicate very simply that it's a project run by
non-profit organization as opposed to a Facebook or Google. The
opposite impression is very common when we talk to potential donors.
We call this an "educational appeal" where we hope to establish a
basis of understanding of our endeavor as a charitable one.

 "Wikipedia is a non-profit project" is a bit long, but perhaps
preferable. Any other suggestions?

> We might want to "localize" the slogans rather than just
> "translate them".

I'm all in favor of translators applying some level of judgment here
as long as the underlying intention is communicated clearly.

> 2) While I understand the necessity and the advantages of pushing
> Wikipedia over the other projects in terms of "return on investment",
> I really think it would make sense to find a slightly different
> wording/message for the notices on other projects.

We've had some internal conversations about this. Presumably, if you
are on Wikibooks or Wikimedia Commons, you know that you are on a
different project. So we're looking into a {{sitename}} type variable
to have more project-specific messaging at least in the sitenotice. I
can't promise that we will have this immediately at launch time.

> 3) Has it been at all thought about to "translate" the currency in the
> progress bar?
> I am thinking that "dollars" sounds a bit too American maybe and that
> in these times of financial crisis, it might make sense for some
> countries/languages to have a local currency progress bar.

Unfortunately that's not entirely trivial to do as it means rendering
the thermometer in many different variants. Definitely worth doing but
we can probably not make it a priority.

> Otherwise, I find the mock-ups clear, slick and to the point.

Thanks :-)
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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