I checked my inbox today to find a note from a friend asking if
Wikipedia was okay. My reply was essentially "Wikipedia is fine, if you
want to donate, make an edit or two."
I wonder how many Wikimedians are getting the same notes of concern. I'd
be quite surprised, for example, if Wikimedia Foundation department heads
weren't getting these types of notes right now. It's a bit sad. And I
wonder how others reply to sincere concerns about Wikipedia's health.
(Again, nobody knows what Wikimedia is, for better or worse.)
Meanwhile, also in my inbox, the author of this piece sent me a link to
<http://newslines.org/blog/stop-giving-wikipedia-money/>, which was silly
in parts, but an interesting perspective to read.
Lila Tretikov wrote:
I recommend those of you who would like to come up with
some test wording
assuming the current word count do so and after you pick top 3-5 we can
pilot with one of our next user groups.
Eh, fair play. I've started a page here:
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_banners/December_2014>. I'm
busy today, but I'll try to brainstorm some better options. If we must
have donation advertising (a necessary evil, for now, we assume), we can
probably at least stop shouting at and misleading our readers/donors. :-)
MZMcBride