[WikiEN-l] Ad-free forever?

[Carcharoth]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:23 PM, Bod Notbod <bodnotbod at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The strategy process is still ongoing and there are a number of
>> proposals for adverts. I don't sense they're going to get any traction
>> this time. But if the WMF severely lacked funds in future years I
>> imagine everyone would start considering them.
>
> Yeah, that's probably a wise position for them to take.
>
> Incidentally, first hand anecdote that different advertising messages
> work for different people. Was cruising on the French wikipedia and
> there was an ad with a big progress bar, showing the total number of
> articles at 12 million (I assume cross all projects), heading towards
> 25. I was like "yeah, I'd donate to make that happen!" :)

Some of the later slogans are better as well. If "Wikipedia Forever"
was preparing the ground for the later slogans, it begins to make
sense (I think Erik said this was the plan all along).

"Wikipedia is there when you need it — now it needs you"

"You depend on us, now we need your help. Support Wikipedia today."

I like those two, but the best one so far, IMO, is this one:

"One entry became 14 million. One language became 270. Help protect
what we’ve created."

That is really eye-catchingly different. One became 14 million. 270
languages is (superficially at least) also very impressive. I suppose
they might use the number of daily edits next as well.

On the negative side, the "great, great, great, grandson/daughter" one
made me cringe. Even more than the "Wikipedia Forever" one. It seemed
to distract from the utility people have for Wikipedia right here and
now.

Carcharoth