Megan Hernandez wrote:
Sending an update to let you know that we've heard your concerns and to thank you for your feedback. We're working on some new banners including a version without the overlay to try out based on feedback you've shared. Our banners are always a work in progress, they will continue to evolve and improve.
We'll send an email update on Monday.
Have a good weekend,
Thank you for this note.
Just for general information, Thursday through Sunday is a holiday in a lot of the United States (Thursday for Thanksgiving, Friday to recover from Thanksgiving). This time of year (after Thanksgiving and until Christmas) is usually the busiest time of year for the Wikimedia Foundation fundraising team. This is to say, it's completely expected that responses will be slower around this time of year. :-)
This is also why we try to have conversations about fundraising banner principles in the off season. One principle I'd really like to see set in stone is "don't obscure the page content." If someone reaches our sites to learn about apples or bears or the Spanish Armada, surely our highest obligation is sharing free content. We can simultaneously ask for donations, but we need to do so in a polite and respectful way.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=10657614#Fundraising_banner shows some of the banners that have been recently tested, for the curious.
Many of us lived through "WIKIPEDIA FOREVER" and many other banner horror shows. But collectively Wikimedia is recognizing that these new fundraising banner overlays are a step in the wrong direction. The banners may be effective, but they're not aligned with Wikimedia's values.
MZMcBride