[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia fundraising slogans from identi.ca and Twitter

[William Pietri]

David Gerard wrote:
> 2009/11/15 William Pietri <william at scissor.com>:
>
>   
>> [...] I'm just saying
>> that we don't have to speculate; we can run all the ones that don't seem
>> blatantly counterproductive, and find out how well they do. Even better,
>> we can automatically optimize which we show and how. [...]
>>     
>
>
> It is not in fact that easy - because every slogan has to be
> translated into a pile of languages (by volunteers), and every banner
> has to be tested thoroughly in all translations (some this year broke
> in IE6/7). So there really isn't that much room to move. Erik Moeller
> posted about this on the wiki, explaining in detail what's going on,
> but I can't find the link right now.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting this approach for this year, but 
for future years.

As others have pointed out, you could do this incrementally. If a slogan 
doesn't test well in its native language, there's no reason to go to the 
trouble of translating it. And even if it does, it may not be 
particularly translatable, so I think translating is something could be 
optional, based either on central expert judgment or the individual 
judgment of volunteer translators.

As to browser testing, I think we should be able to abstract formats 
from content enough to make sure that the containers get tested 
thoroughly, while providing enough flexibility to those suggesting 
content. Quite a lot of people have the skills to come up with a clever 
line, a clever image, or a basic mix of the two, and those formats would 
be easy to constrain and browser test.

That would leave out some of the more esoteric format possibilities, but 
I think that's ok; this would still be a step forward in terms of 
engaging the community and the wider public, and I suspect ad format 
innovation is anyhow not something where we want to be on the forefront.

William