hard together to find a common solution. In these
very last days, we
continued a very honest and direct conversation.
I just received the news, and I'm glad to share it with you all.
I personally think that the Fundraising Team made a brave move (as they
will not likely meet the fundraising goals), and would love to see it
welcomed with the respect it deserves.
Best regards
Andrea
On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 8:33 PM, Steinsplitter Wiki <
steinsplitter-wiki(a)live.com> wrote:
Thank you Romaine for setting up the RFC on meta
[1]!
So we can see what the community thinks about this.
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Fundraising_banne
r_or_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_banner
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2015 19:04:41 +0200
From: romaine.wiki(a)gmail.com
To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org;
wikilovesmonuments(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wiki Loves Monuments]
Wiki Loves
Monuments
in Italy largely blocked by WMF fundraising
Hi all,
Having spoken with some people, I have come to the conclusion that
it is time to ask the Wikimedia community what they think about this
situation. I
have especially seen both parties, the Wiki Loves
Monuments
organising teams who like to have a banner for Wiki Loves Monuments
in September,
and
the WMF Fundraising team who likes to have a
fundraising banner in
September. Then the question remains: what has more value for the
Wikimedia
movement?
To find out what the Wikimedia community thinks about this
situation, I have set up this Request for Comment:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Fundraising_banne
r_or_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_banner
Romaine
2015-08-30 15:35 GMT+02:00 Romaine Wiki <romaine.wiki(a)gmail.com>om>:
> Hi all,
>
> New update:
>
> The Italian team had some calls with the fundraising team and it
resulted
> in:
> * Wiki Loves Monuments gets the whole 4th week of September. So we
> will have the WLM banner alone the first and the last week.
> * WLM IT is discussing with the community a message in the Main
> Page of Wikipedia
> * WMF will try to put a link to WLM in the banner
> * WMF will put a link to WLM in the Thank You letter for donors.
> * WMF is helping WLM Italy with a blogpost in the blog, and social
media
> fire
>
> They made clear this won't happen again.
>
> To me, the only improvements is their promise it won't happen
> again,
what
> we certainly keep them having their promise
in future, and that
> the
amount
> of time the Wiki Loves Monuments banner is
shown will be 50% of
> the
time.
>
> The rest of the outcomes is lousy and they sold us empty boxes.
> Wiki
Loves
> Monuments depends for about 99% on a
CentralNotice banner. Most
visitors to
> Wikipedia do not visit the main page of a
wiki. I do not believe a
small
> link to WLM in a large fundraising banner
would help or is seen. I
> do
not
> believe that a link in the Thank You letter
for donors would work.
> A blogpost will be written anyway, as Wiki Loves Monuments is the
> largest project of the Wikimedia movement, but still it would not
> reach to the
core
> people Wiki Loves Monuments is aiming at.
And a social media fire,
> I
have
> no believe in it that WMF would have any
control in such and the
> core infrastructure is not under control by WMF.
>
> And still no explanation why it is not possible to move the
> fundraising banner to a month later...
>
> I can only conclude that we have been put off, in Dutch:
> afgescheept worden (literally: being shipped of).
>
> At such having a blocking banner is sad news. A competition is
> large ruined by it.
>
> What I consider the most demotivating is the play the fundraising
> team
of
> WMF has played. I certainly do not consider
it fair play. Too many
empty
> promises, dividing the community to get less
resistance, no fair
> negotiations, usage of the inexperience of volunteers, and more.
>
> And even after explaining the community perspective many times by
multiple
> people, I still have the impression some
people in WMF still do
> not
really
> get it.
>
> I had the occasion in the past weeks that I spoke with people from
> WMF
who
> are working for the foundation for some
years, and I had to
> explain
what
> Wiki Loves Monuments is. (And that was not
the first time.) It is
> the largest project of the movement, recognised as largest photo
> contest
in the
> world, and some WMF people do not know or
understand. I was so
friendly to
> explain it of course, but it gave mixed
feelings.
>
> And even after explaining the community perspective many times by
multiple
> people, they do not really get it.
>
> Lessons to be learned:
> * Do not assume that the fundraising team takes the best position
> for
the
> movement, they have a target to make.
> * Do not assume the fundraising team plays a fair play. They have
> a
lot of
> weight and use it.
> * Do not assume that their first offer (in case of a blocking
> banner)
is a
> balanced, reasonable and well thought one.
> * Do not expect them to know how much the impact is of something.
> * Do expect them to offer empty shells/boxes/etc and are not
> impressed
by
> > those.
> > * Say always no if they ask if a blocking banner or two banners at
> > the same time is okay. It has a devastating effect on your
> > results. Yes you can, some chapters did and that was taken into
account
seriously.
> > > * Always have the complete team involved in the communication, and
> > > even think of asking advisers (from outside WMF) for support and
> > > feedback
> on the
> > > proposals. Always have someone involved who has years of
> > > experience in
> this
> > > matter, otherwise you loose and the whole community looses.
> > >
> > > But I think the best lesson learned is: with every blocking
> > > banner, let the community publicly decide what should be chosen.
> > >
> > > Romaine
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > 2015-08-30 14:00 GMT+02:00 Steinsplitter Wiki <
> steinsplitter-wiki(a)live.com
> > > >:
> > >
> > >> I 100% agree with rupert's thoughts.
> > >>
> > >> Wiki(p|m)edia was and is mad be volunteers, therefore volunteer
> > >> first should apply. Volunteers are contributing the content for
> > >> exactly zero dollars per hour. It is all because of free
> > >> knowledge and other
> stuff, but
> > >> not about money. It looks like money is fore some people moor
> important
> > >> than free knowledge. It is frustrating...
> > >>
> > >> Regards,
> > >> Steinsplitter
> > >>
> > >> > From: rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com
> > >> > Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2015 21:35:46 +0200
> > >> > To: janbart(a)wikimedia.org; patricio.lorente(a)gmail.com;
> > >> me.lyzzy(a)gmail.com; ubifrieda(a)gmail.com; jmh649(a)gmail.com;
> > >> darekj(a)alk.edu.pl; denny.vrandecic(a)kit.edu; jwales(a)wikia.com;
> > >> stu(a)wikimedia.org
> > >> > CC: wikilovesmonuments(a)lists.wikimedia.org;
> > >> wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > >> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wiki Loves Monuments] Wiki Loves
> Monuments
> > >> in Italy largely blocked by WMF fundraising
> > >> >
> > >> > dear board,
> > >> >
> > >> > allow me to directly ask you to stop these fundraising persons
> > >> > to
> spoil
> > >> > wiki loves monuments because of less than intelligent KPIs. WMF
> cannot
> > >> and
> > >> > should not behave like an elephant in the porcelain shop. there
> > >> > is a
> > >> simple
> > >> > technical solution to the problem below, to have a combined
> > >> > banner
> for
> > >> WLM
> > >> > and donation. it is impossible that more money at stake as is
> covered by
> > >> > the reserves, isn't it? i am really lacking words here ...
the
> > >> > only
> > >> ones i
> > >> > could find would not be compliant with the friendly space