On 10/22/07, Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Okay guys.
There is nothing mysterious in this "spam", this is simply the coming fundraiser.
So, to keep you up to date, there were many messages on the wikimedia foundation list on this topic in the past few weeks, but I guess you were too busy to have a look. That's okay.
I follow the Foundation mailing list off and on. I was aware that preparations were being made for the annual fundraising drive.
What I knew: * The fundraising campaign would start "sometime soon" * The fundraising campaign would take the form of an announcement at the top of every Wikipedia page.
What I expected: * The announcement would be static, just like the rest of the Wikipedia interface. * The announcement would be visible only to non-logged-in visitors, like last year.
What I did not expect: * A scrolling abomination from 1995, more suited to being featured on The Daily WTF than on the front page of a top-ten website. * No obvious way to hide the banner.
You can see why I initially thought someone had hacked into the interface -- the original version of the notice bore a strong resemblance to the worst of banner ads.