[Foundation-l] Blink tag jokes are now obsolete.

[Stephen Bain]

On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 10:02 AM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> A fundraising campaign is not a switch-on/switch-off affair. It has an
> arc. It's that arc that helps it be successful. This is the last day
> of the campaign, and a final invitation to give to reach our goal. It
> should communicate a sense of urgency towards closure and resolution,
> coinciding with people's increased year-end willingness to give (which
> isn't just about taxes).

Fabricating a sense of urgency that donations are immediately
necessary at the end of the campaign to keep the projects operational
and freely available (ie, "Please help Wikipedia pay its bills in
2012" [1], "Last day to make a tax-deductible contribution to keep
Wikipedia free in 2012" [2], etc) is as unethical now as it was in
last year's campaign ("Please donate to keep Wikipedia free" in the
banner you linked to [3], etc).

This discussion about blinking banners might seem trivial but it
serves as a very obvious reminder, in style now as well as substance,
of the disjoint between the fundraising team's work and the norms and
ethos of the community and projects.

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 12:34 AM, Domas Mituzas <midom.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This isn't much of a slippery slope to say that next year we should expect dancing monkeys.

My money's on Jimmy's face Photoshopped onto the dancing baby GIF.

--
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&template=B11_Foundation_ThreePoints_US2
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&template=B11_Foundation_Jimmy_fader_5_day
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&template=20101229_JAFS003fader_US

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com