I can definitely understand your frustration, Romaine. However, if there is a strong operational reason why the Fundraising team can't move the activity they have planned for Italy in September, then I can't really see what resolution there can be except for sharing the banner space.
Normally though one would expect repeated banner impressions to have diminishing returns, rather than increasing returns - so I would expect the impact on Wiki Loves Monuments to be a fair bit less than what you make out. One thing I don't understand though - I thought fundraising banners were set to display ~once per person these days, rather than actually site-wide as they used to - is it not possible to have the (less intrusive) WLM banner displaying for the people who aren't getting the fundraising messages? Thanks, Chris On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 7:42 PM, Romaine Wiki <romaine.w...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > Sad news. > The title of this thread seems a bit hard, but that is practically the > situation as it looks now. > > *Background* > Wiki Loves Monuments is the yearly photo contest since 2010, organised by > many local Wikipedia communities and local chapters. For this contest a > banner is shown on top of Wikipedia pages in the specific countries to > attract attention from the public to participate in enriching Wikipedia > with photos of the local cultural heritage. > > Wiki Loves Monuments depends for at least 99% on the banner. When there is > no banner, the uploads and results drop dramatically, as possible > participants are not informed and can't easily find the contest site. Also > participants need time to go on location to take photos and see the banner > above Wikipedia afterwards to find their way back. > > > > *What is the situation?* > * The fundraising team plans to have a fundraising banner in Italy during > the month September. > * The local team of Wiki Loves Monuments in Italy is organising the contest > in Italy and needs a banner as well. > > As there can be shown only one banner at the time, there have been talks > about these conflicting banners. Result: Wiki Loves Monuments get only > 37,5% of the time, the fundraising banner 62,5% of the time. > > Now you maybe think that 37,5% of the time is still large, but the > appearances are deceptive because of the different ways the banner is used, > and because the differences in numbers of upload throughout the month > September. Also the banner is not shown at all during two full weeks, > important weeks to attract participants. In the end I estimate, based on > the usage and issues of previous years, etc, that only 10-15% of the > uploads are made in comparison what normally would have been expected. > > This is what I would call a devastating effect. > > And this is purely because of bad planning at WMF: > * They haven't checked which countries participated continuously the past > years. > * They haven't informed which countries are likely to participate. > * And they say they can't move the fundraising banner to another month, but > it is still a mystery why that isn't possible. > > This same issue was originally the case in two countries, but somehow it > was possible to move it for the second country. > > This is really sad for Italy. Extra sad because of the difficult copyright > situation in Italy, what requires the local team already to do much much > much more work than in most other countries, just to have a normal contest. > The Italian team does a great job this year. > > > *My conclusion* > The community is working very hard on improving and expanding the content > of Wikipedia by organising Wiki Loves Monuments. I always thought that this > was the number one priority of the whole Wikimedia movement. Did I made a > wrong assumption somehow? > > But when it actually matters, the community project bears the bunt. This is > sad, very sad. > > > Please all, support the Italian team, they do a great job and deserve a > successful contest. > > Greetings, > > Romaine > > > > PS: I am one of the international organisers of Wiki Loves Monuments this > year, but this e-mail is written on my personal account only. > _______________________________________________ > 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>
