+1 -----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andreas Kolbe Sent: Wednesday, 14 October 2015 7:01 PM To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Q1 Fundraising Update
On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Leila Zia <[email protected]> wrote: > I saw that banner and I want to do all I can to help you not use it > even if it performs 20% better. I put my story in p.s. so it's easier > to skip for whoever chooses to skip. This is a true story. :-\ > On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 10:58 PM, Pete Forsyth <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree, that banner does not reflect the values of this movement. > Pure and simple; it's not a grey area, and not worth my time to > discuss for the 97th time. > > Personally, I long ago gave up participating in these discussions, for > the most part -- because the same valid points get made over and over > again, and the same *AWFUL* errors are made year after year in the > fund-raising campaign. > > Leila's post here is heartening, and I'm glad that somebody has the > energy to articulate the concerns so well. I, myself, do not; I have > simply lost faith in the integrity of the Wikimedia Foundation's > fund-raising operation. I am, honestly, ashamed to tell people that I > used to work in the fund-raising department there (though I believe > the work we did was valuable). > > I recently heard from a high-ranking executive at a software company. > She told me that she had given money to the Wikimedia Foundation, and > then looked into the WMF's budget, and the messages in the campaign > she had responded to. The word she used to describe her feeling was > "mortified." > She had considered asking for her money back, but had decided against it. > > Fortunately, she was sophisticated enough not apply her negative > feelings to Wikipedia, but rather to the Wikimedia Foundation. But can > the WMF afford to assume that will always be the case? > I endorse what Leila and Pete said above. My responses to the black banner differ in details from Leila's, but the overall impression is the same: it is fear-inducing, as though someone or something has been murdered, or is about to be. Looking at the black banner, my eyes are first drawn to the highlighted sentence, and then the one following it, about "keeping Wikipedia online and ad-free." Of course the banner "works". But it works for the wrong reasons. (The same could be said for the #keepitfree hashtag on Twitter.) It's the result of purely Darwinian A/B testing run amok, untempered by reason and conscience. As Pete Forsyth has said: that process is broken. It seems not unlike the process by which the yellow press come up with its headlines, designed to pander to the basest, most primal instincts. I will reiterate here that, according to the recent fundraising report[1], the Foundation took $75.5 million in 2014/2015, exactly five times what it had taken five years prior, in 2009-2010 ($15.1 million). Most organisations would see such revenue growth not as evidence of a looming financial crisis calling for desperate appeals for more cash, but as an amazing, stunning success. Credibility, once lost, is hard to regain. So far, you have lost it only for a number of individuals, like that software executive Pete mentioned in his post. But that number is increasing, and as your bank balance grows and your appeals become more desperate-sounding, there will come a tipping point. If you are going to ask people this December to donate money "to keep Wikipedia online and ad-free" (something that in the narrow sense costs the WMF no more than $3 million p.a.), when in reality you are shooting for $70 million to $100 million, including several million dollars for an endowment and several million more for further staff expansion, you risk doing catastrophic damage to the Foundation's future fundraising ability. Would you like that to be your legacy? [1] See graphic in Signpost report: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-09-30/News_and_notes > p.s. Here is the story: > I open my laptop at 5:30am to check few definitions on Wikipedia for > an upcoming early morning meeting. The room is dark and the only > source of light is my laptop, I go to Wikipedia and I see that banner > < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising#/media/File:Sept2015Banner > Ex.png > >. > I'm still sleepy, and probably my mind is not functioning the way it > normally does, nevertheless, here is what comes to my mind: I have a > sudden feeling of fear. I see a very black background, and I think > someone very important has died. I look a bit more, and I see some red > colors, then I think something in the order of SOPA has happened. I'm > getting quite nervous. I look at the text, but it's too long for me to > parse it at that moment with the thoughts I have in the background. I > look more at the background, I see some orange colors, some yellow > colors, and a little human circled, I first think that whole color > combination is a flame (red, orange, yellow, and the semi shape of a > flame), then I think someone is jailed/executed. My eyes finally > manage to see the right-hand-side of the page, and I see there are > dollar signs and numbers. I sigh in relief, and then I get really > upset (though I manage to pass that stage soon). Now, if I was not > involved in the movement, I'm not sure if I would pay or not (maybe I > would) seeing that banner, but because I'm in the Movement, I got really sad > seeing myself going through that experience because I know more. > I also acknowledge that different people have different backgrounds > and experiences in life. What I see as a sign of death and war, may > not be a signal for many other people (though the color black is > almost universally used for signalling death), and I acknowledge that > you cannot accommodate everyone. But please be aware, some people get > really scared seeing this kind of banner. > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> ----- No virus found in this message. 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