[Wikimedia-l] Fundraiser launch update

[Risker]

On 26 November 2012 02:10, Zack Exley <zexley at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We have some information on the fundraiser launch to share.  We are still
> planning on launching Monday, November 26, but we're going to make a change
> this year in the timing of campaigns around the world.
>
>
> <snip>


> Our volunteer translators have already done a ton of work translating our
> current best messages -- and we are very thankful! We're using all of those
> translations now, in our testing and they will be the basis of the April
> campaign. We will be engaging the community of volunteers, donors and
> readers even more in the coming months to optimize the translations of the
> new messages and ramp up testing in various languages.  Moreover, there are
> technical updates to the translation system that we'll be able to use
> during the April campaign that are not released yet.
>
> We are looking forward to more of our readers receiving better messages and
> donation experiences in countries around the world.
>
>

After thinking about the implications of this for a bit, a few thoughts
have struck me:

*Anything that shortens a campaign for any area of the world is a good
thing.  Having the chance to use better, well tested messaging, and giving
our wonderful volunteer translators the time they need to do a great job in
localizing these messages, will mean shorter campaigns everywhere.
*We've all seen on previous campaigns that sometimes there comes a banner,
mid-campaign, that just takes off.  But when that banner is found, it means
everyone going like mad to try and spread it around.  Now there's time to
do it well and benefit more areas.
*This also spreads the workload on both volunteers and staff a lot better.
This should be particularly beneficial for our non-English colleagues, as
there will be more opportunity to focus on any issues that they encounter
and to address improvements that they suggest.

Good luck to the fundraising team in the campaign that's about to kick off,
and the new one in April.

Risker