Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

_ The Wikimedia Foundation _ Is an appeal for money ever going to go away?

Posted by: mbz1

On December 31, 2011 there was an appeal by jimbo that tried to scare the readers that they have only a few more hours to make the donation, but today is January 2 and they still are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt only in "Thank you" form. According to Sue Gardner https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=L11_0101_SG/en&utm_source=B11_0101_SG1&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=C11_0101_SG_TY1_US&language=en&uselang=en&country=US&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCunt, yet the banners are still there. Don't they understand that such practice is dishonest?

Posted by: Kelly Martin

QUOTE(mbz1 @ Mon 2nd January 2012, 12:49pm) *
On December 31, 2011 there was an appeal by jimbo that tried to scare the readers that they have only a few more hours to make the donation, but today is January 2 and they still are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt only in "Thank you" form. According to Sue Gardner https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=L11_0101_SG/en&utm_source=B11_0101_SG1&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=C11_0101_SG_TY1_US&language=en&uselang=en&country=US&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCunt, yet the banners are still there. Don't they understand that such practice is dishonest?
Obviously Jimbo's castle fund is not yet complete.

Posted by: EricBarbour

You'd damn well better get used to this. They took a page from the public-broadcasting
world, and made begging an essential part of the "Wikipedia experience". In the future
it will not be possible to use WP without being harassed for money.

(You can thank Sue Gardner for this, if you must find someone to "blame".)

At least it's being done with very crude XSS coding, so the banners can be blocked fairly easily.
The next step would be tracking cookies that they can use to watch users, plus "targeted delivery"
of content. Maybe even sell that info to advertisers, so Wikipedia won't have obvious ads--everything
is "hidden" from the ignorant average user. The only thing slowing this up is the "free-culture"
attitude of the volunteers, and general incompetence at the WMF. But you can bet they are talking
to consultants, and the consultants are telling them to do these things.

Posted by: SB_Johnny

QUOTE(EricBarbour @ Mon 2nd January 2012, 2:17pm) *

You'd damn well better get used to this. They took a page from the public-broadcasting
world, and made begging an essential part of the "Wikipedia experience". In the future
it will not be possible to use WP without being harassed for money.

(You can thank Sue Gardner for this, if you must find someone to "blame".)

At least it's being done with very crude XSS coding, so the banners can be blocked fairly easily.
The next step would be tracking cookies that they can use to watch users, plus "targeted delivery"
of content. Maybe even sell that info to advertisers, so Wikipedia won't have obvious ads--everything
is "hidden" from the ignorant average user. The only thing slowing this up is the "free-culture"
attitude of the volunteers, and general incompetence at the WMF. But you can bet they are talking
to consultants, and the consultants are telling them to do these things.

Are we taking bets yet on whether Facebook Plugins will be integrated by the end of the year?

Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if their initial "experiments" with that sort of thing somehow pointed people to wikia. No charge for that of course, because it will only be an "experiment". hmmm.gif

Posted by: mbz1

QUOTE(mbz1 @ Mon 2nd January 2012, 6:49pm) *

On December 31, 2011 there was an appeal by jimbo that tried to scare the readers that they have only a few more hours to make the donation, but today is January 2 and they still are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt only in "Thank you" form. According to Sue Gardner https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=L11_0101_SG/en&utm_source=B11_0101_SG1&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=C11_0101_SG_TY1_US&language=en&uselang=en&country=US&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCunt, yet the banners are still there. Don't they understand that such practice is dishonest?

http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Forum&curid=140676&diff=3210094&oldid=3209760
QUOTE
Despite being desperately poor, I made a donation. When exactly may I expect to stop seeing these annoying pleas? Please?