The latest fundraiser doesn’t seem that different… except that even after you donate, you keep getting slammed with ads telling you how often you’ve used Wikipedia. Saving my money next year! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.199.115.61 (talk) 10:46, 18 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This just seems silly, given how low key the fund raising campaign is. Nobody threatens to close down Wikipedia if you don't contribute. (If so show me!) The WMF displays the banner about twice per year and you can dismiss it in seconds. If you don't want to contribute, don't. But please don't make up a problem where there isn't one. 72.94.160.105 (talk) 05:09, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The Wikimedia Foundation could just do what Wikimedia Philippines does. http://www.wikimedia.org.ph/wmph/Main_Page has a "join us" link that leads to a docs.google.com page that asks you to pay a fee to become a "regular member". (becoming am "Associate Member" is free.) Who could possibly have a problem with that? (Guy ducks while everyone throws rotten vegetables at him) --Guy Macon (talk) 06:02, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It does not matter how low key the campaign is, it should also be honest. For me the problem is as Kolbe writes, the campaign is not honest. The same goes with a mail message I got from WMF, if I and other previous donators gave, then they did not have to collect money for the rest of the year. The foundation has reserves, and if they run out it could cut staff to almost nothing and still the contributors would be able to work on improving Wikipedia. I don't say that this is preferable and I do think that most of what the WMF does served our purpose, but then we should say that and not use some other language that does not fully reflect reality. Ulflarsen (talk) 06:46, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Wait. 250. Two hundred and fifty. The Foundation has 250 employees???? Why don't I see much from what they do, except producing disasters like the Visual Editor and Flow? The Foundation seems to follow the basic principle of any bureaucracy: growth for growth's sake... And no bureaucracy ever shrinks again... --Randykitty (talk) 08:12, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting list. Microsoft, of course, makes software that actually works. Craigslist is a good comparison, I think: they need a legal department, software developers to maintain the website so that anyone can edit their ads, marketing people, and people checking content. As WMF is not involved in the latter task, I guess they should be able to function with a few people less than Craigslist. Or compare with Reddit, same story. What are these 250-odd people doing? --Randykitty (talk) 14:16, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"Microsoft, of course, makes software that actually works." [citation needed] "Taken to court over its insistence on making IE a mandatory integrated element of Windows, a seemingly self-destructive Microsoft tried to win favour with the judges by devoting vast resources to making IE slower, stupider and even more proprietary. Even Mac users were forced to use the bloody thing..." Dabbs, Alistair (21 Mar 2015). "Dear departed Internet Explorer, how I will miss you ... NOT". Devoting vast resources on buggy software that it tries to force people to use? A more apt comparison than you might think, but with over 600 times more employees than the Foundation, Microsoft has a lot to prove. Arthur goes shopping (talk) 11:57, 24 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's bad to mislead people when you're asking them for money. I'm surprised to see the fundraising survey didn't even try to determine whether the banner was misleading readers, as so many well-respected Wikimedians had warned. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 11:59, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
So where are these "blatant falsehoods"? Nobody has identified one. It seems that the problem that the commenters are complaining about is that the WMF has cash reserves. Most people would not consider that a problem, in fact it would be irresponsible to wait until the last moment before the reserves run out to conduct a fund raising campaign. 72.94.160.105 (talk) 12:59, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
One point that was raised repeatedly in the linked mailing list discussions is that the banners and emails imply donations are needed to keep Wikipedia "online and ad-free for another year", as though there were an acute problem with paying the hosting fees—to the extent that ads would have to be considered to keep the site online if people didn't donate. Readers left with that impression would obviously be more willing to donate. However, neither of those things is true of course: the Foundation probably has enough money in the bank right now to pay Internet hosting costs at the current rate ($2.5 million per year) for 20 years, and nobody is remotely considering converting Wikipedia to an ad-based revenue model to prevent the site from going under. Instead, the money is fuelling an unprecedented organisational expansion with an exponential increase in paid staff, as noted in the Epoch Times a couple of days ago. The donations are facilitating a deep structural change in the Wikimedia movement. I don't think that is something donors are really aware of. AndreasJN46614:07, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
This is the 6th time you've quoted Lila Tretikov's thank you note thanking donors for keeping Wikipedia "online and ad-free for another year". This note went out to people who had already donated. It was not a threat to close down Wikipedia or allow ads unless they donated. They had already donated. Those donors did help keep Wikipedia online - the donations pay for the cost of programmers and hosting, as well as for the needed accountants, lawyers, and for the expenses of board members (board members don't get salaries AFAIK). Perhaps what you don't like is that the WMF also gives grants to chapters and editors. If so, that is what you should be complaining about, not making up stories that Lila Tretikov is spreading "blatant falsehoods". The closest thing that I see to a blatant falsehood in this article is your repeated statements that Tretikov and the WMF are spreading blatant falsehoods. 72.94.160.105 (talk) 16:27, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The wording "online and ad-free another year" is also present on the banner shown at the top of the page. [1]. A number of banners shown during the campaign had this wording. The expression "blatant falsehoods" came from David Gerard, a longstanding Wikimedia press spokesman in the UK. AndreasJN46616:41, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The WMF gives grants to editors? Really? Wbm1058 (talk) 14:40, 22 March 2015 (UTC) So, I am aware that the WMF gives "scholarship" grants to editors who request needs-based financial assistance to attend Wikimania and other events which require travel and lodging to attend. But does the WMF give grants for actual editing of the encyclopedia's content? Wbm1058 (talk) 16:24, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I went through the fundraising banner line-by-line here: http://newslines.org/blog/stop-giving-wikipedia-money/ Stop Giving Wikipedia Money. Also, as noted in this Quora post Jimmy Wales and others only came up with the we-need-the-money-to-keep-going-for-x-number-of-years excuse after people complained that the fundraising was excessive. -- Sparkzillatalk!17:43, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The whole survey reeks of something especially commissioned to support the justification lyrics for this scare-mongering begging spree with huge banners. One of the main questions, the obvious discrepancy between the claim of running out of money soon for the core operation and the vast coffers of money stashed somewhere together with an exponentially expanding paid bureaucracy, that wants more money for itself instead of for the project, wasn't asked at all. WP could run for decades on the money already there, only without all those staffers, but again as an community project. When will the WMF finally come up with answers to that questions? --♫ Sänger - Talk - superputsch must go14:28, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Another fine investigation by Andrea. However, there is one point he appears to have missed; maybe he assumed we knew it, or I've not read his article carefully enough to see it. The chief problem with current Wikimedia fundraising is that it violates the ideas of the movement, & is performed solely to maximize revenue from fundraising. The banners fill the screen of a cell phone; they use scare words; & there is the implication that the money will be used, at least in part, to improve & maintain content -- none of which is true. I suspect a lot of this is due to pressure on the fundraisers to maximize revenue, with no relevant constraints on how this is done. (The survey about WMF fundraising & reported in the Signpostlast week was an obvious whitewash to justify more of the same stuff that annoyed people.) -- llywrch (talk) 23:27, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I am quite certain that there is a widespread misconception among the public that the Wikimedia Foundation has some sort of involvement in writing, checking and improving actual Wikipedia content, and that they (falsely) assume a substantial proportion of donated money is used to this end. I did think that everyone reading this here knows this not to be the case. I would be interested though in knowing how widespread that misconception is among the public, and to what extent it affects donor behaviour.
The Foundation has made it clear on numerous occasions that it considers content management the task of the volunteer community. Indeed, the public by and large does not understand that the fundraising banner is a Wikimedia fundraising banner, rather than a Wikipedia fundraising banner, and has little idea of the respective contributions the Foundation and the volunteer community make to the site they read. AndreasJN46614:02, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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