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Foundation wiki feedback/header

Please note: This page is concerned with the website http://wikimediafoundation.org, the official website of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, which runs over 700 websites. For comments and feedback to those websites, it is preferred that you go to them directly.

You can provide privileged locked article for commercial enterprises. For example: lock the article about Coca-Cola on the Coca-Cola appointee so no one (except he/she) can edit it in any sense. And ask Coca-Cola to PAY for that privilege.

There is a grammatical error at the page currently linked to from the donation banner on Wikipedia. Under "FAQs," "We employ less than 30 people" should be "We employ fewer than 30 people" (less is only used for non-countable nouns--"less money" vs. "fewer dollars"). Thanks. Chick Bowen 05:38, 11 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Done MBisanz ^talk 05:53, 11 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

If you count, there's actually 31 members of staff listed (donation link says 'Where does my money go? People and technology. Even though Wikipedia is one of the top 5 most visited websites in the world, we employ fewer than 30 people.' Following the link, it says < 35) --129.234.252.67 11:59, 11 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en

In the section:

How do you balance keeping Wikipedia open with making it more reliable?

We believe increased participation makes Wikipedia better. At the same time, we must maintain the tough standards that have made Wikipedia respected by scientists, academics, journalists, and foundations.

- the link from 'tough standards' leads to a 'no article' page:

"Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Editorial oversight and control in Wikipedia to check for alternative titles or spellings."

Fixed Thank you. - Rjd0060 13:44, 11 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

This thing is huge! This giant banner is showing for all of wiki-NL. Please make it smaller. User:Kwiki on Dutch Wikipedia 85.223.108.141 02:18, 13 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Hit the "[Verbergen]" in the upper-right corner to make it smaller. Cbrown1023 talk 02:20, 13 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

I know, but millions of wikinoobs don't. Anyways, I spoke about it on IRC and they convinced me this is the "correct" size, since it was the same size last year. I still think its way too big and I hope they can take it off soon; but now I know it is not a mistake (at first I thought it was a mistake because on my 24" screen at 1920x1200 it is 3cm by 45cm). I will hide it with CSS. 85.223.108.141 03:54, 13 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Done

Please use this magic word in wmf:Support Wikipedia/en etc, to localize page titles and avoid those ugly language suffixes. --Liangent 12:46, 13 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Why not make a wikimedian button instead of just wikipedian? As for today I spend a lot more time taking picures for commons than writing articles. --Korall

I agree, Wiki button sounds good. Stuart Drossner

[1]

Shouldn't it read "fewer than 30 people" rather than "less than 30 people" here?--138.38.221.18 07:37, 14 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Fixed, thanks! --Erwin 08:58, 14 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Please create templates on payments.wikimedia.org for different languages. Used by Special:PayflowProGateway --Liangent 13:23, 15 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

We're working on getting the templates uploaded. We should have most of them up soon. --Az1568 (talk) 00:18, 23 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

On http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Deductibility_of_donations#Canada, the link to the US-Canada tax treaty needs to be updated. The new one is http://www.fin.gc.ca/treaties-conventions/USA_-eng.asp. --Dbo789 06:34, 19 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Done, thanks. Cbrown1023 talk 03:20, 20 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Hello,

I came to know that you gonna change the online foundation structure. Thus for you are wanting donations. You can do it obviously. But please do not change the layout of any of them. When we surfs net we noticed that each and every website has complicated designs, where as you guys have such a nice design which pleased our eyes. You may add functionality, but please please don't change the layout.

Regards, Samik Dutta

Respected Foundation Representatives:

Thank you for putting a banner asking for donations at the top of the website pages. It brought it to my attention and gave a wonderful visual for what you have and what you need.

Please note - it is not enough. For the one inch x 5 inch space. You NEED more information or something to grab attention and ask for help!

People can set up automatic deductions from bank account straight to you. It's only a suggestion but its an important one. A person might not have 1 million dollars to donate, but they might have 1 to 5 dollars once a month for 12 months = 12ドル to 60ドル a year. Put in that light its doable and helpful.

It puts people in a long-term, pro-active state of help.

Why do I care to say this?

Wikipedia has tremendous flaws, but it is by the people, for the people and through the people. It is knowledge for everyone, with safety checks - eyewitnesses can correct anything or send a flag up if information is sufficient, yet not objective enough.

THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.

History has always been written by the victors, the politicians or the slanted.

I have come here to research for my movie script because military-based data bases have almost no footnotes and very little eye-witness balances.

Please use the Foundation Banner space in a better way - PLEASE.

I have not donated yet, I am still a starving student living on student grants and loans, but I will put it on my Christmas list. So Best Wishes

Ms. Heidi Von Dunker

I'm sure this has been suggested already but, if the foundation needs funds then perhaps it could consider opening itself up to advertising. This could be entirely optional. Users who follow the link to donate could be given an option "Enable Ads". Cookies would allow that user to be displayed ads whenever they use wikipedia. This could be turned off at any time. In terms of maintaining the integrity of the foundation, I'm sure that a set of guidelines could be established. These could ensure that advertising is not directed and that the foundation could be in no way considered to be taking donations from specific organisations. Perhaps give users a certain amount of control or establish an advertising "roulette" where ads could be displayed completely at random. While there are no doubt established issues in any kind of association with google there is no denying that tapping in to some of the massive revenue from google ads could raise significant funds. Good luck with your fundraising, hopefully I will personally be in a position soon to make a specific monetary donation.

If you need 6.6 Million dollars, have you considered having a Roll of Honour listing those individuals and organisations that have donated significant sums? (Or all donations?). I don't see one. Some people not currently donating might be willing to leave something in their will if they knew it would get their name up in 'perpituity'. They might even be moved to give something beforehand.

Thanks for sending in your feedback! We have two pages that serve that purpose, actually. The benefactors page lists all large donors from individuals and companies, while the contribution history page gives a list of all the donations we've received, the amount, date, and a public comment. Cbrown1023 talk 21:35, 23 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Support/en

No links on this page to enable placement on other websites - at least I could not find them. All I saw was "<a" and nothing in the drop down.

Why can't go to the bottom of this page and hit a "send" button!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, sorry for the trouble with this. It's actually a box with HTML code that you can copy to other websites. To reduce the confusion, we've made the box larger. Cbrown1023 talk 01:58, 25 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Hello, I just donated to the Wikipedia Foundation. I strongly believe in free, open sharing of information, so I support what Wikipedia does. Six conglomerates own all the media in the world: this is quite alarming, knowing that six conglomerates control most of what the entire human population sees and hears in all media. This is why I think it's so important that information sharing is returned to the autonomy of the people. However, I noticed in your annual report that Time Warner, one of those six conglomerates, is one of your big donors. Though I understand you need funding, I feel it is a conflict of interest to accept money from one of the conglomerates who stand in the way of objectivity and freedom in media. I worry that Time Warner may have (or at least may be aiming to) buy some sway in determining the content that is deemed acceptable on Wikipedia. On Youtube, for example, there are incidents of political content being censored due to Time Warner's meddling. I'm not accusing any staff on Wikipedia of any unethical activity, I'm just concerned about the idea of a free, communal information-sharing website being influenced by a corporate entity with its own monetary motives. One of the best things about Wikipedia is that it's run by a nonprofit, this means Wikipedia shouldn't be tethered to anything corporate, and Wikipedia can only stay true to its commitment to free and open sharing of knowledge if this is so.

To clarify, one reason the source of your money is so important to me is because I'm a canvasser: I raise funds for organizations like Amnesty International and the ACLU. The Rockefeller foundation actually offered the ACLU over a million dollars, but with restrictive and vague conditions attached. For example, they stated the ACLU couldn't use the money for any "unacceptable activities." So the ACLU turned the money down. I think it's important that nonprofits stay true to the causes they work for, especially when accepting money.

With that said, I'd like to suggest you invest in canvassers at some point. Canvassers would educate many people about all the work Wikipedia Foundation does, and they would raise money for you faster and more effectively than a web banner. Many canvassers also have experience in obtaining monthly sustaining donations that I'd imagine would be very helpful to an organization like this one that relies heavily on individual donors.

At the top of the

Done - Thnks for the note - Huib talk 21:40, 25 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

I might have considered a donation, if not the damn link from wikipedia WAS A JAVASCRIPT LINK - enough with this javascript crap! Insert REAL html links (href) not all this javascript - half the pages end up looking like crap if you don't happen to use the computer the author was using. --Werwrwer 04:14, 26 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

• I wouldn't say my decision to donate/not donate was affected by this, but it was certainly rather annoying. 82.6.105.198 23:18, 26 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

The fact #4 that I might not know reads: "We exist so that every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge."

I didn't know this indeed, since most Wikipedias explicitly reject all but the most select pieces of knowledge - like, for example, not particularly notorious knowledge. The knowledge that there is a pink house on my street certainly qualifies for "the sum of all knowledge" but it does not qualify for Wikipedia. There are many other limitations that make the above statement extremely misleading. 82.6.105.198 23:18, 26 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

While the pink-house example is perhaps a bit impractical, I completely agree with the underlying point. I used to be among the top 20 most active contributors in ~2003-2004, but now I've given up trying to create new articles or adding any new facts on both English and German Wikipedia because they just always get deleted for no reason. A project purporting to collect the "sum of all knowledge" would naturally welcome any such contributions about actual real topics, but clealy Wikipedia is not about collecting the "sum of all knowledge". — Timwi 05:51, 27 November 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Wikipedia can only have the knowledge of those that make an input. If University scholars and a growing majority of college students refuse to use and input data here, then this online encyclopedia will never live up to it's dream. Wikipedia is controlled and mainly edited by a young male orientated target demographic of computer literate (mainly techy) people, this itself is the biggest issue concerning this encyclopedia. It causes it to be biased. Such an example can be seen from the level of detail shown under computer games and microchip articles, compare Halo (the computer game) to an article on 'floristry' (with thousands of years of history and background) and you can see how unbalanced everything is (please note: the Halo article is wonderful, my point is; that not all other articles go into that much LOD and they should). If Wikipedia is to live up to it's dream, it needs to employ specialists to improve this type of content, and not just recruit 1000 back bedroom computer orientated people.

I would have donated, but I saw no indication that the information submitted online would be transported over the Internet in a secure fashion.

Well I tried to donate, with my totally valid American Express card, only to have payment declined, with please try later. Get it together, my enthusiasm for making a donation is declining!

Couldn't donate using PayPal direct debit. A lot of people who would like to donate are probably excluded because they don't own a credit card.

The reason I won't give to such a wonderful idea is the biased rep Wikipedia is obtaining. You'd be surprised the comments I get when mentioning Wikipedia and the stories about how not to rely on it. Launch a thorough review by 3 sources. Extreme left, extreme right, extreme middle and review and publish fairly. I'd bet the donations would start piling in if you could demonstrate clearly that Wikipedia is indeed a search for truth.

For submitting donations, use Google Checkout option as well.

Some of us want to contribute, but do not have a Paypal account and are hesitant to give credit card information over the web.

Some of us do not have Paypal accounts.. and are hesitant to give out credit card information.

'I noticed you have set certain donation amounts next to your donation button. I have an idea that may improve the amount of your donations, the frequency of your donations, and the total numbers of persons willing to donate and actually donating. '

This is my idea:

In place of writing a set amount of money to donate next to the donation button, why not try this? Design one page with different donation amounts ranging from 1ドル to unlimited.

The donate button will have nothing written next to it. The donation button will simply say "Donate", and visitors who wish to donate can click on the "Donate" button. Clicking on the donation button will lead each visitor to a page containing the different donation amounts.

Clicking on the donations' button leads the visitor who wishes to donate to the donations' page. On reaching the donations' page,

the visitor immediately observes a short message on top that quietly trumphets wikimedia accomplishments,

-what wikimedia has acheived,

-and how wikimedia is helping the world today through its' informational, educational contributions.

-And the fact that all wikimedia asks is for visitors who like wikimedia and read wiki articles frequently,

-all wiki asks is for readers, visitors to voluntarily contribute from time time to help wiki continue in its' quest to educate, enlighten the world.

From the donations' page, visitors who wish to donate observe different donation amounts from 1ドル to unlimited. An unlimited donation amount is any amount a visitor wishes to physically type into a blank donation text box. To start the visitor donations rolling, the donations page presents to each visitor examples of donation amounts.

Example: 1,ドル 2,ドル 3,ドル 4,ドル 5,ドル 6,ドル 7,ドル 8,ドル 9,ドル 10,ドル 11,ドル 12,ドル 13,ドル 14,ドル 14,ドル and on listing donations in numerical amounts. The whole page is set up with checkboxes. Each checkbox has next to it a different donation amount. The donations count forward starting from 1ドル to 25ドル. On reaching 25,ドル The donation amounts are listing in multiples of 5ドル each.

Example: 25,ドル 30,ドル 35,ドル 40,ドル 45,ドル 50,ドル 55,ドル 60ドル and on up to 100ドル. On reaching 100,ドル the donation amounts count forward starting from 100ドル to 200,ドル in amounts of 10ドル.

Example: 100,ドル 110,ドル 120,ドル 130,ドル 140,ドル 150,ドル 160,ドル 170,ドル up to 200ドル. The donations page is subdivided into sections. Each section requests donations in differing amounts.

Example: Section one, includes checkboxes counting donations in amounts from 1ドル to 25,ドルin 1ドル amounts.

Example: Section two, includes checkboxes counting donations in amounts from 25ドル to 100,ドル in 5ドル amounts.

Example: Section three, includes checkboxes counting donations in amounts from 100ドル 200,ドル counting in amounts of 10ドル.

Example: Section three, has checkboxes counting donations in amounts from 200,ドル to 300,ドル counting in amounts of 20ドル.

These sections continue, proceeding up to 1,000ドル.00.

On reaching 1,000ドル.00, A blank text box with a dollar sign next to it is contained in its' own section. Nothing else is contained in this last section, except this blank checkbox with a dollar sign next to it. The caption next to this blank checkbox says something like: "Select the amount you wish to donate, and type this amount into this donation box."

This final offer to donate allows visitors to choose their own donation amounts, down to the last penny.

I figure, this provides every visitor with all possible donation options, does not limit the amount of money donated, does not make little of any donation amount, and does not demand any set donation amount. This allows the visitor to choose.

Example, some visitors may be turned off by a request for 200,ドル while other visitors can easily donate 200ドル and are turned off by a request for 20ドル. The best strategy for gaining donations is to allow the visitor to choose their donation amount, by offering all possible donations choices.

I'd like to know wiki can continue, that wiki will never end. 

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en#Where_does_my_money_go.3F

"To people and technology. Even though Wikipedia and its sister projects are one of the top five most-visited websites in the world, we employ fewer than 35 people; see our staff overview. Roughly half work on technology, a small team supports our public outreach and volunteer cultivation activities, and the remaining staff work in fundraising and administration. In addition, your support helps to pay for the technology infrastructure (servers and bandwidth) that keep Wikipedia running and growing. Fundamentally, the Wikimedia Foundation exists to support and grow the enormous network of volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia and its sister projects -- more than 100,000 people around the world."

This is no explanation. It says it goes to technology and people. How much of it goes to people. How much it goes to technology. As detail, how much goes to server maintenance, buying new hardware, software, how much it goes to bandwidth etc. Explain and link in detail so we can have a clue. I know there were some reports for that. Also if the main issue is bandwidth there are various precautions wikipedia can take, to limit bandwidth and effort waste. Where or how we can share our opinions, and why I am not aware wikipedia ever asked opinions of its users in top banners like that. Kasaalan 11:37, 11 December 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

Hey Jimmy -

I saw the Wiki (U.S.) Main Page now display some sample Donor info in the upper right... (donor name, date, amount)

I'd like to suggest an idea to GET MORE DONATIONS!

- Display a "scrolling panel" in that same space... The movement will attract more eyeballs AND will give a sense of real activity... suggesting to some they should join in on the activity (of donating now).

- Fine tuning the concept, I would skip the date and roll the display with -

 * Today's Donations *

 Jack L. 10ドル
 Jane D. 19ドル
 Pierre T. 25ドル

 - Always have 3-5 names on the screen... 
 - either scroll and pause, or scroll continuously
 - PLEASE do not use full names... It is disconcerting that one's name might be displayed
 without their permission... and it adds nothing.

Well - hope this makes it to your desk for consideration...

Thanks and Best Regards.

Donald Lagasse

There is a spelling mistake at [2]. "Soutenez Wikipédia, faîtes un don" should be "Soutenez Wikipédia, faites un don". Thank you.

hi guys im a person that really feels hand tigh , when it comes to see you needing help, and i cannot offer it,i dont know , may be you can explain it to me , i dont get to see my country's money , in my country we use RD$ pesos dominicanos.from Dominican Republic.it is equivalent 36.00RD$ pesos = 1US$Dollar. if you put that, many people from my country will help you please help us to help you guys .. you guys deserve it you'll the best.

I donated today. I was suprised to see I could not pay in INR (Indian Rupee)! Not all people who'd like to contribute will have an International Card. Might be worth correcting. Keep up the great work! Thanks! .. Nana.

Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org) shows you guys having a 3,531,771 excess in funds from last year(http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11212). Why then are you fund-raising so aggressively? I understand the concept of keeping a stock in the bank, but the fund-raising increases each year far exceed the increases in spending... -Talkstosocks 18:45, 14 December 2009 (UTC) [reply ]

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