Re: [Wikimedia-l] Subject lines for WMF fundraising emails

[Caitlin Cogdill]

Hi all,

Thank you for sharing your concerns. We hear them and we take them
seriously. *As of today, we have pulled this subject line from our testing
rotation.*

On the Fundraising team, we pride ourselves on making data-driven
decisions, and there are many types of data inputs we process outside of
dollar amount raised. For example, how many people choose to unsubscribe
from our list or submit an abuse complaint when we send an email? Does a
certain subject line get very high opens but a low rate of donations per
open--indicating that it is more clickbait than effective content? How much
and what kind of feedback is our Donor Services team getting?

We watched these inputs closely while sending this subject line to donors.
Our unsubscribe and abuse rates were low, the donation per open rate was
even higher than usual, and while our Donor Services team flagged some
negative responses from donors, they determined these comments were not in
a significant volume.

That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test
basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging?
This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and
about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it
faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and
understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be
an ongoing challenge in our work.

We are grateful to be presented with this challenge and with the joy of
telling millions of people about this movement. Thank you for caring so
deeply, for all your contributions, and for keeping this feedback loop
alive.

Sincerely,
Caitlin

On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 1:47 PM Pine W  wrote:

>  Hi Seddon,
>
> While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have
> with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that
> someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an
> effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of
> "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging people
> not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as
> far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I believe
> that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with
> Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable
> information.
>
> I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name
> for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed
> uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
>
> On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the
> past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to
> Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there is
> not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its
> fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
>
> I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into
> reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant
> to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer their
> time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I
> think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
>
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
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> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 



-- 
Caitlin Cogdill
Senior Fundraising Email Manager
Wikimedia Foundation

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!

*https://donate.wikimedia.org *
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Subject lines for WMF fundraising emails

[Pine W]

Thank you very much for this update, Caitlin.

Yesterday I was thinking more about this issue, and today I was planning to
append my earlier comments by saying that I realize that a fundraising
appeal has some differences from an encyclopedia article in terms of
writing style. Also, I realize that sometimes what seems good from one
perspective is problematic from a different perspective.

Perhaps at a time when the Fundraising team is less busy, maybe in January,
there could be an opportunity for a public discussion such as an IRC office
hour, Hangouts meeting, and/or talk page discussion about how to
incorporate community review of Fundraising messages prior to them going
into production.

Thanks again for the update, and thanks for listening.

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )


On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 5:17 PM Caitlin Cogdill 
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Thank you for sharing your concerns. We hear them and we take them
> seriously. *As of today, we have pulled this subject line from our testing
> rotation.*
>
> On the Fundraising team, we pride ourselves on making data-driven
> decisions, and there are many types of data inputs we process outside of
> dollar amount raised. For example, how many people choose to unsubscribe
> from our list or submit an abuse complaint when we send an email? Does a
> certain subject line get very high opens but a low rate of donations per
> open--indicating that it is more clickbait than effective content? How much
> and what kind of feedback is our Donor Services team getting?
>
> We watched these inputs closely while sending this subject line to donors.
> Our unsubscribe and abuse rates were low, the donation per open rate was
> even higher than usual, and while our Donor Services team flagged some
> negative responses from donors, they determined these comments were not in
> a significant volume.
>
> That said, there is a final input which is harder to measure on a per-test
> basis: how do we, our colleagues, and volunteers feel about our messaging?
> This team cares deeply about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and
> about the mission we all work to achieve. We want to represent it
> faithfully, and do so in a way our readers and donors can engage with and
> understand. This balance can be really hard to strike and it will always be
> an ongoing challenge in our work.
>
> We are grateful to be presented with this challenge and with the joy of
> telling millions of people about this movement. Thank you for caring so
> deeply, for all your contributions, and for keeping this feedback loop
> alive.
>
> Sincerely,
> Caitlin
>
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 1:47 PM Pine W  wrote:
>
> >  Hi Seddon,
> >
> > While the fundraising appeal may be successful, the problem that I have
> > with this subject line is that it can mislead readers into thinking that
> > someone with the ability to do so is seriously considering, or making an
> > effort to, delete Wikipedia in entirety. I think that a subject line of
> > "Block Wikipedia?" might be okay, and I am supportive of encouraging
> people
> > not to take Wikipedia for granted. But regarding "Delete Wikipedia?", as
> > far as I know that generally misrepresents the current situation. I
> believe
> > that using "Delete Wikipedia?" as a subject line is inconsistent with
> > Wikipedia's goals of providing neutral, verifiable, and reliable
> > information.
> >
> > I am starting to think that if WMF wants to use the Wikipedia brand name
> > for WMF fundraising then WMF should first publicly discuss its proposed
> > uses of the Wikipedia brand name with Wikipedians.
> >
> > On a related issue, I don't know if it's happening this year, but in the
> > past another concern that I've had is the conflation of donating to
> > Wikipedia with donating to WMF. Wikipedia and WMF are related but there
> is
> > not a 1:1 relationship, and I hope that WMF makes that clear in its
> > fundraising. The use of "Delete Wikipedia?" reminds me of these concerns.
> >
> > I would prefer to avoid diverting the community's limited time into
> > reviewing WMF's choices, but unfortunately the issues are too significant
> > to ignore. I don't know how many community members want to volunteer
> their
> > time to review fundraising appeals before they go into production, but I
> > think that it would be good for WMF to ask.
> >
> > Pine
> > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
>
>
>
> --
> Caitlin Cogdill
> Senior Fundraising Email Manager
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> the

[Wikimedia-l] Recognition of the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network User Group

[Kirill Lokshin]

Hi everyone!

I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has recognized
[1] the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network User Group [2] as a
Wikimedia User Group. The group aims to protect the common elements of the
Wikimedian in Residence role, creating a peer support network which invites
new and experienced Wikimedians in Residence to find each other for
collaboration, and to encourage a global professional environment which
inspires institutions to offer appointments to persons to engage with
Wikimedia projects.

Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!

Regards,
Kirill Lokshin
Chair, Affiliations Committee

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognition_of_Wikimedians_in_Residence_Exchange_Network_User_Group
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_in_Residence_Exchange_Network
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[Wikimedia-l] Recognition of the AfroCROWD User Group

[Kirill Lokshin]

Hi everyone!

I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has recognized
[1] the AfroCROWD User Group [2] as a Wikimedia User Group. The group aims
to promote participation of people of African descent in the Wikimedia
community, and to increase content about people and events in Africa and
the African Diaspora.

Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!

Regards,
Kirill Lokshin
Chair, Affiliations Committee

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognition_of_AfroCROWD_User_Group
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/AfroCROWD_User_Group
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