Mailing List Archive

Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade
(As this email may enact changes that affect the total Wikimedia
community, please feel free to forward or post this email on any and all
applicable lists. I would like as much feedback as possible.)

Wikimedians--

We have begun exploring ideas for enhancing the visibility of the donate
button not only within the Wikimedia main skin but also on every page of
every Wikimedia project. We hope that enhancement will enable us to
better informing our public that we are dependent on their donations as
we promote the free and open knowledge movement.

We expect that a small change to the Wikimedia main skin will result in
big returns in donations--donations we use to keep the Wikimedia
movement alive and growing. I expect that in return for a bit of
enhanced visibility, we will see a daily increase of up to 20% in
donations.

Working with the same professional designer that worked on last year's
donation page (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en), we
have culled his 30+ button ideas into 6 that represent some of the
better designs.

We have posted several design options for your comments and input here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade

I would like your input and advice in figuring out both how to make this
buttons look better and how to make the language around the buttons
better. In addition, we are exploring adding different language
underneath the Title Bar of an article.

Design is only half of this change...words are important. What are the
simplest words we can use (we are aware that these changes may get
translated to numerous other languages) that will convey what we want to
convey? You, collectively, have proven to be amazing at using words and
communicating with our users. How can we reach them?

One of these designs borrows from our look and feel from our previous
campaign and another resembles the look and feel of Paypal. What do you
think of those? We are curious about how look and feel associated with
online payments will increase the need or opportunity to make a donation.

The objective here is to take the average Wikimedia user and get them to
recognize we are a non-profit and that our future depends on their
donations. How can we better show our users that we are a charity?

Again, your time and input is appreciated. To see the designs, go here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade

-Rand


--
Rand Montoya
Head of Community Giving
Wikimedia Foundation
www.wikimedia.org
Email: rand@wikimedia.org
Phone: 415.839.6885 x615
Fax: 415.882.0495
Cell: 510.685.7030

“At some future time, I hope to have something witty,
intelligent, or funny in this space.”


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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
Your goal, which is to have "a small change to the Wikimedia main skin [...]
result in big returns in donation" has been extensively researched in not
only the academic literature but by major online advertisers such as Google.
Since there are so many parameters that could potentially be tweaked the
best way to proceed is a dual hypothesis and data driven approach where you
experimentally tweak the user interface in order to determine,
scientifically, what the best improvements are. Simply modifying a single
variable will make it difficult for you to make a statistical determination
of the success of the approach. Since there is a direct financial incentive
doing this the correct way seems like an easy sell.

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 3:22 PM, Rand Montoya <rmontoya@wikimedia.org>wrote:

> (As this email may enact changes that affect the total Wikimedia
> community, please feel free to forward or post this email on any and all
> applicable lists. I would like as much feedback as possible.)
>
> Wikimedians--
>
> We have begun exploring ideas for enhancing the visibility of the donate
> button not only within the Wikimedia main skin but also on every page of
> every Wikimedia project. We hope that enhancement will enable us to
> better informing our public that we are dependent on their donations as
> we promote the free and open knowledge movement.
>
> We expect that a small change to the Wikimedia main skin will result in
> big returns in donations--donations we use to keep the Wikimedia
> movement alive and growing. I expect that in return for a bit of
> enhanced visibility, we will see a daily increase of up to 20% in
> donations.
>
> Working with the same professional designer that worked on last year's
> donation page (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en), we
> have culled his 30+ button ideas into 6 that represent some of the
> better designs.
>
> We have posted several design options for your comments and input here:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade
>
> I would like your input and advice in figuring out both how to make this
> buttons look better and how to make the language around the buttons
> better. In addition, we are exploring adding different language
> underneath the Title Bar of an article.
>
> Design is only half of this change...words are important. What are the
> simplest words we can use (we are aware that these changes may get
> translated to numerous other languages) that will convey what we want to
> convey? You, collectively, have proven to be amazing at using words and
> communicating with our users. How can we reach them?
>
> One of these designs borrows from our look and feel from our previous
> campaign and another resembles the look and feel of Paypal. What do you
> think of those? We are curious about how look and feel associated with
> online payments will increase the need or opportunity to make a donation.
>
> The objective here is to take the average Wikimedia user and get them to
> recognize we are a non-profit and that our future depends on their
> donations. How can we better show our users that we are a charity?
>
> Again, your time and input is appreciated. To see the designs, go here:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade
>
> -Rand
>
>
> --
> Rand Montoya
> Head of Community Giving
> Wikimedia Foundation
> www.wikimedia.org
> Email: rand@wikimedia.org
> Phone: 415.839.6885 x615
> Fax: 415.882.0495
> Cell: 510.685.7030
>
> “At some future time, I hope to have something witty,
> intelligent, or funny in this space.”
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
2009/6/24 Rand Montoya <rmontoya@wikimedia.org>:
> (As this email may enact changes that affect the total Wikimedia
> community, please feel free to forward or post this email on any and all
> applicable lists. I would like as much feedback as possible.)
>
> Wikimedians--
>
> We have begun exploring ideas for enhancing the visibility of the donate
> button not only within the Wikimedia main skin but also on every page of
> every Wikimedia project. We hope that enhancement will enable us to
> better informing our public that we are dependent on their donations as
> we promote the free and open knowledge movement.
>
> We expect that a small change to the Wikimedia main skin will result in
> big returns in donations--donations we use to keep the Wikimedia
> movement alive and growing. I expect that in return for a bit of
> enhanced visibility, we will see a daily increase of up to 20% in
> donations.

Ever look at the classic skin? Much like what we used before monobook.
Anyway the donate link is in much the same place. Little evidence of
effectiveness.



--
geni

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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
Geni, I think that's a flawed argument, if I understand you correctly.

Sure, it was there before... under radically different conditions. No
one can say that the editing/reading habits of users then are the same
as the editing/reading habits of users now.

I like the idea of giving it a shot, and congratulate Rand and his
team for some nifty looking designs.

Philippe



On Jun 24, 2009, at 4:33 PM, geni wrote:

> 2009/6/24 Rand Montoya <rmontoya@wikimedia.org>:
>> (As this email may enact changes that affect the total Wikimedia
>> community, please feel free to forward or post this email on any
>> and all
>> applicable lists. I would like as much feedback as possible.)
>>
>> Wikimedians--
>>
>> We have begun exploring ideas for enhancing the visibility of the
>> donate
>> button not only within the Wikimedia main skin but also on every
>> page of
>> every Wikimedia project. We hope that enhancement will enable us to
>> better informing our public that we are dependent on their
>> donations as
>> we promote the free and open knowledge movement.
>>
>> We expect that a small change to the Wikimedia main skin will
>> result in
>> big returns in donations--donations we use to keep the Wikimedia
>> movement alive and growing. I expect that in return for a bit of
>> enhanced visibility, we will see a daily increase of up to 20% in
>> donations.
>
> Ever look at the classic skin? Much like what we used before monobook.
> Anyway the donate link is in much the same place. Little evidence of
> effectiveness.
>
>
>
> --
> geni
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
2009/6/24 philippe <philippe.wiki@gmail.com>:
> Geni, I think that's a flawed argument, if I understand you correctly.

You would need to know about some wiki politics in 2006 to get it.
Suffice to say the side bar suggestion didn't get very far. Of course
at that point we were informed that the current anon notice was an
experiment to last a few weeks so hard to object to further
experiments.


--
geni

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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
On Jun 24, 2009, at 6:34 PM, geni wrote:

> You would need to know about some wiki politics in 2006 to get it.

OK, so 'splain it to me? And to Rand, who wasn't here in 2006
either? :-) But let's not also negate the other part of what I wrote;
these things don't exist in a vacuum. The circumstances have changed:
what's the problem with giving it a go in a controlled format now?

Philippe

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Re: Wikimedia Donation Buttons Upgrade [ In reply to ]
Hey All--

We are about to gather and refine input on some ideas about enhancing
visibility of our donation button. We've had tons of responses so far
but still would appreciate any feedback that you might have. Also,
some of the comments are quite thoughtful...others have added their own
buttons.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade

Take a look and add to the discussion.

-Rand Montoya

--
Rand Montoya
Head of Community Giving
Wikimedia Foundation
www.wikimedia.org
Email: rand@wikimedia.org
Phone: 415.839.6885 x615
Fax: 415.882.0495
Cell: 510.685.7030

“At some future time, I hope to have something witty,
intelligent, or funny in this space.”





Rand Montoya wrote:
> (As this email may enact changes that affect the total Wikimedia
> community, please feel free to forward or post this email on any and all
> applicable lists. I would like as much feedback as possible.)
>
> Wikimedians--
>
> We have begun exploring ideas for enhancing the visibility of the donate
> button not only within the Wikimedia main skin but also on every page of
> every Wikimedia project. We hope that enhancement will enable us to
> better informing our public that we are dependent on their donations as
> we promote the free and open knowledge movement.
>
> We expect that a small change to the Wikimedia main skin will result in
> big returns in donations--donations we use to keep the Wikimedia
> movement alive and growing. I expect that in return for a bit of
> enhanced visibility, we will see a daily increase of up to 20% in
> donations.
>
> Working with the same professional designer that worked on last year's
> donation page (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en), we
> have culled his 30+ button ideas into 6 that represent some of the
> better designs.
>
> We have posted several design options for your comments and input here:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade
>
> I would like your input and advice in figuring out both how to make this
> buttons look better and how to make the language around the buttons
> better. In addition, we are exploring adding different language
> underneath the Title Bar of an article.
>
> Design is only half of this change...words are important. What are the
> simplest words we can use (we are aware that these changes may get
> translated to numerous other languages) that will convey what we want to
> convey? You, collectively, have proven to be amazing at using words and
> communicating with our users. How can we reach them?
>
> One of these designs borrows from our look and feel from our previous
> campaign and another resembles the look and feel of Paypal. What do you
> think of those? We are curious about how look and feel associated with
> online payments will increase the need or opportunity to make a donation.
>
> The objective here is to take the average Wikimedia user and get them to
> recognize we are a non-profit and that our future depends on their
> donations. How can we better show our users that we are a charity?
>
> Again, your time and input is appreciated. To see the designs, go here:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade
>
> -Rand
>
>




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