Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-10-14/News and notes



The Wikimedia Foundation has published its fundraising update for the first quarter of the 2015–2016 financial year, covering the months of July, August and September 2015 (the Foundation's financial year runs from July 1 to June 30):

The Italian fundraiser, originally scheduled for September, had been postponed following a complaint from Wiki Loves Monuments organizer, which sparked a Request for comment on Meta. (The substance of the complaint was that the fundraising banner would interfere with the ability to show the banner advertising the Wiki Loves Monuments photography competition, substantially reducing Italian participation in the contest.)

The Foundation's fundraising team tested a wide variety of banners during the quarter, and reported that by September, a banner design had been found that increased donations by about 20% over the best-performing banner in the last quarter.

Minor modifications to the banner wording have since been made in response to community feedback, changing:
 * 1) "We survive on donations averaging about $15" to "We are sustained by donations averaging about $15."
 * 2) "Please help us end the fundraiser and get back to improving Wikipedia" to "Please help us end the fundraiser and improve Wikipedia."

Mailing list debate
The announcement of the Q1 update led to debate on the Wikimedia-l mailing list. Wikimedia Foundation research scientist Leila Zia said she found the black banner (shown above) too scary. She explained her involuntary responses to the banner in detail, saying it inspired a "sudden feeling of fear" when she first saw it, as though someone important had died:

Her concerns were echoed by Pete Forsyth, who opined:

Other posts acknowledged the fundraising team's responsiveness to community feedback, and the difficulty of meeting rising budget needs given declining pageviews. Wikimedia Foundation board member James Heilman said on October 15,

AK

Space, the final frontier
has submitted a grant proposal to launch Wikipedia articles into outer space. The project would include a number of articles on a 512 GB SD card to be included on a satellite launch scheduled for the end of the year. According to the proposal, the project would "increase name recondition of Wikimedia and its subcomponents" as well as "STEM coolness". G

Author donates one year's royalties to the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia blog reports that French author Antoine Bello donated an entire year’s royalties to the Wikimedia Foundation. AK 

Brief notes

 * New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, Ian.thomson. AK
 * Photography legislation in Argentina: Wikimedia Argentina reports on a proposed change of the law in Argentina that would extend authors' rights from the current 20 years after publication to 70 years after the death of the author. "We might be left without photos of Argentina's history", the blog post says. AK
 * Quarterly reviews: The Wikimedia Foundation's first-quarter departmental reviews took place last week. Minutes and slides for those meetings are now available. AK