Lila - thank you for this thoughtful update. Fundraising trends and data are always welcome, particularly where communities can help improve and test local messages.
I am also deeply thankful for the smooth work of the fundraising team, who have made great progress over the last few years – in storytelling & translation, mobile giving, testing & data analysis. I look forward to seeing what we learn this year. Sam On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 1:53 AM, Lila Tretikov <l...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > All -- we will not have a pop-up banner. > > I know you want more insight into the trends: we will provide some of those > in our upcoming reports and metrics and we will plan to shift to a > quarterly cadence of a more specific metrics report that will include > fundraising. > > Just to cover some basic trends: the last two years have significantly > changed our traffic composition. Regionally, we are seeing growth in > emerging languages and regions. This is great: people who need the > knowledge most, but cannot afford it and often live in countries where free > speech is criminalized are learning about Wikipedia. We need to keep > supporting that. In Europe, North America, Australia, etc. we see Wikipedia > becoming a part of the fabric of the internet itself: embedded in web > searches, operating systems, and other online resources. This is great too: > people get knowledge wherever they are. Both of those trends however can > make it more difficult to raise funds (and sometimes contribute), so we > have to make sure we adapt. > > We are doing a lot of work around thinking through a diversified > fundraising strategy. That said, our main tool today are the site banners. > Just to be clear: the pop-up banner had advantages. It tested high with > readers, was only shown once to each user and cut the total number of > impressions needed by a factor of 7! We did hear your concerns however. The > Fundraising team listened and quickly integrated your feedback. While our > launch banner will be different from last year’s, it will not be a pop-up, > overlay content, or be sticky. As always this starting design will iterate > daily and have parallel tests, so you may see variations at any given time. > > Megan Hernandez will send another email with more details about the process > to-date, and how best to communicate with Fundraising during the coming > month. > > And in the spirit of the holidays I'd like to thank the fundraising team > for all of their hard work and to all of the volunteers who have helped > with the campaigns. > > ~~~~ Lila > > > > > On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 7:39 PM, MZMcBride <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote: > > > Ori Livneh wrote: > > >On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 5:55 PM, MZMcBride <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote: > > >>The banners may be effective, but they're not aligned with Wikimedia's > > >>values. > > > > > >I wouldn't come out quite as strongly against these banners, but I share > > >the underlying sentiment. > > > > What happened to "we make the Internet not suck"? What happened to the > > near-universal agreement that pop-ups are bad? > > > > >(a) solicit input from a neutral reputation management consultancy, and > > > > Consultants are the reason the fundraising campaigns and associated > > banners are so awful. To the idea that we continue paying people > > needlessly for bad advice, I'm going to say no thank you. I'd rather not. > > > > >(b) create a forum for staffers to talk openly about this matter, > without > > >fear of reprisal > > > > What's wrong with wikimedia-l? I can assure you that this mailing list > has > > grade-A reprisal, far better than what you'll receive from work. :-) > > > > David Gerard wrote: > > >"Wikipedia begging for donations per usual. "Advertising isn't evil" > > >they say as they throw a second nag at me as I scroll down." > > > > > >https://twitter.com/enemyplayer/status/539180814739988481 > > > > Indeed. It might help if we started referring to the fundraising banners > > as full-page advertising. Calling a spade a spade, and all that. > > > > It also occurred to me that it wouldn't be unreasonable for Adblock > (Plus) > > to reconsider its classification of the fundraising notices (even > > "banners" is generous). Historically banners on Wikimedia wikis have not > > been considered ads by Adblock and friends, but this assumed decency and > > common sense on Wikimedia's part. These full-page gremlins lack both. > > > > >Obnoxious banners *really do damage the brand*. > > > > > >What are the fundraiser metrics? If they don't include effect on the > > >brand, they'll be motivating damaging behaviour. > > > > We used to have live-updating statistics about the annual fundraiser at > > <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics>. > That > > error message is probably highly misleading and we really ought to have > > better reporting about donations. As far as I know, we've taken several > > steps backward in recent years in terms of donation transparency and this > > should be addressed in 2015. (I'm somewhat hoping someone will quickly > > prove me wrong with a link to up-to-date donor stats... go on!) > > > > MZMcBride > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
