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The WMF section of the village pump is a community-managed page. Editors or Wikimedia Foundation staff may post and discuss information, proposals, feedback requests, or other matters of significance to both the community and the Foundation. It is intended to aid communication, understanding, and coordination between the community and the foundation, though Wikimedia Foundation currently does not consider this page to be a communication venue.

Threads may be automatically archived after 14 days of inactivity.

Behaviour on this page: This page is for engaging with and discussing the Wikimedia Foundation. Editors commenting here are required to act with appropriate decorum. While grievances, complaints, or criticism of the foundation are frequently posted here, you are expected to present them without being rude or hostile. Comments that are uncivil may be removed without warning. Personal attacks against other users, including employees of the Wikimedia Foundation, will be met with sanctions.

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Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin: an experiment[edit]

Hi all. We invite your feedback on a proposed way to improve communication from and about the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin is an experiment to establish a more standardised format and cadence. It would include headlines and links from the Wikimedia Foundation's technical work; Foundation activities with communities and affiliates; as well as with other stakeholders like readers, donors, regulators, the media, and the general public.

A short overview of the concept itself is on Meta at m:Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin, with the first “trial” issue at m:Wikimedia_Foundation_Bulletin/2024/06-01 - also copied below. You can subscribe to the bulletin via talk page delivery on any Wikimedia wiki. Depending on the feedback received, we might start this as a regular Bulletin for the coming fiscal year (which starts July 1).

This is an experiment: we want to know what you think, what is missing, what is too much, and whether this is something that we should consider investing more time and effort into. Please post your feedback on the Bulletin talk page - on the concept itself, and suggestions on anything from the design to specific words used would also be helpful. You can also provide feedback in this thread; by email to askcac@wikimedia.org; or at the next Conversation with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees on 27 June at 18:00 UTC.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Community Affairs Committee, MPeel-WMF (talk) 18:38, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've put the second issue below as well, and have signed this page up to receive them automatically in the future. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 12:38, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Bulletin June 2024[edit]

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation over the first half of June 2024. Please help Translate.
Upcoming and current community conversations

Talking: 2024 continues


Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure

See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Langauge and Internationalization · other newsletters on Mediawiki.org


Annual Goals Progress on Equity

See also a list of all movement events: on Meta


Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Inclusion

See also blogs: Global Advocacy Blogs · blogs


Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness

See also: quarterly Metrics Reports


Wikimedia Endowment updates


Board and Board committee updates

See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

Trustees talk about how the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees works


In the media


Other Movement curated newsletters & news

See also: Wikimedia blog · Goings-on · Wikimedia World · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · other newsletters:

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcac@wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

MPeel-WMF (talk) 18:38, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin June Issue 2[edit]

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation over the second half of June 2024. Please help translate.

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Wikimania Katowice
Wikimania Katowice

Talking: 2024 continues


Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on Mediawiki.org


Annual Goals Progress on Equity See also a list of all movement events: on Meta


Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Inclusion See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

  • Evaluation of the U4C election results (ongoing)
  • Building a public policy network from both sides of the Pacific: Lessons from the 1st Global Wiki Advocacy Meet-up.


Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness See also: quarterly Metrics Reports


Board and Board committee updates See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter


Foundation statements

Other Movement curated newsletters & news See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Wikimedia World · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · other newsletters:

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcac@wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

Mike Peel (talk) 12:38, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

These are excellent. Please keep them up, we could find a better way to integrate links to such newsletters from a global news page on Meta as well. [perhaps alongside one-line links out to the latest newsletters on individual projects] – SJ + 17:59, 13 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I happened to view this with a different browser zoom level today, and FYI in case it helps, I find the one column version more readable than the two column version. –Novem Linguae (talk) 06:03, 14 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now open – cast your vote[edit]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now open – cast your vote. –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:03, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Novem Linguae as you know, I opened a discussion there on how people should vote, in my opinion. is this location okay for some discussion on this topic, as well? Sm8900 (talk) 15:05, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think we should discuss it at the other location to keep things centralized. –Novem Linguae (talk) 15:55, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
ok, noted. that sounds fine. Sm8900 (talk) 17:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

English banner fundraising campaign 2024 - community collaboration starting now[edit]

Dear all,

We would like to share with you the community collaboration page around the English fundraising banner campaign 2024. This page is for volunteers to learn about fundraising and share ideas for how we can improve the 2024 English fundraising campaign together. On this page you'll have messaging examples and spaces for collaboration, where you can share your ideas for how we can improve the next campaign together.

The fundraising banner pre-tests phase on English Wikipedia starts in mid-July with a few technical tests, using messaging that was created with the community during the last campaign. We will regularly update the collaboration page with new messaging ideas and updates on testing and campaign plans as we prepare for the main campaign that will launch at the end of November.

Generally, during the pre-tests and the campaign, you can contact us:

Best wishes, JBrungs (WMF) (talk) 11:06, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § The Community Wishlist is reopening July 15, 2024[edit]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § The Community Wishlist is reopening July 15, 2024. –Novem Linguae (talk) 20:47, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

POTY (Picture of the Year) competition needs help![edit]

POTY desperately needs new volunteers who can do the things required to run the competition. With the current state of the committee, it is likely that there will be no POTY this year, as the main member who ran scripts for the competition has burned-out from doing wikipedia tasks and isn't up for it. Others on the committee are also missing in action.

Check out the Discussion here [1]. •Shawnqual• 📚 • 💭 03:47, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Consider posting to WP:VPT where our programmers hang out, and consider including in your post links to https://github.com/legoktm/poty-scripts and to https://poty-stuff.toolforge.org/ so that technical folks can easily examine the scripts. –Novem Linguae (talk) 17:57, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § U4C Special Election - Call for Candidates[edit]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § U4C Special Election - Call for Candidates. –Novem Linguae (talk) 03:33, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Unnecessary line on fundraiser banner[edit]

Today I saw an exceptionally large banner on a wiki page (while not logged in), requesting donations. While this topic has been discussed previously, however this message states "it will soon be too late to help us in our fundraiser." This statement gives a clear message that Wikimedia is in dire financial condition and will soon go bankrupt, disregarding its ever growing 'substantial financial resources'. I have observed discontent among editors as well as readers about aggressive donation campaign sometimes, this one is clearly misleading (or maybe even a fraud for its language). Even after acknowledging the fact that there are multiple projects under Wikimedia (also those beyond the sisters of Wikipedia), it is nowhere accurate to say "it will soon be too late to help us in our fundraiser." Given that we editors strive hard to make articles as accurate and void of fringe theories as possible, this statement should be removed, and rather there should be some rules on how this banners are made. ExclusiveEditor Notify Me! 13:39, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'd interpret this differently -- to me it says the fundraiser will soon be over and if you want to donate during the fundraiser, soon it will be too late. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:51, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh come on, Mike. If I said "it's nearly too late to pull me out of the water!", would you think I was drowning, or nearly finished with my swim? The fundraising team are clearly pushing the community-established limits on banner language with this one.
@ExclusiveEditor: It might be more effective to raise this at Wikipedia:Fundraising/2024 banners. – Joe (talk) 14:00, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Joe, thanks for the link; I think I'd seen that before but forgotten it. I don't see the banners myself as I'm always logged in so perhaps I'm not as sensitized to the language as others (or as others who've been discussing this for a while). I agree it's striking a note of urgency that takes a second to interpret; I wouldn't blame a reader of that text who -- for a moment -- thought it meant what ExclusiveEditor said. But it seems harmless to me to have text in a fundraising banner that says "this fundraising period is coming to an end; please donate now before you it ends". Do you read the linked RfC as saying that no text connoting urgency should be included in a fundraising banner? Or is it just that the urgency mustn't be in service of one of the points bulleted in that RfC close? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 14:29, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see it now @Mike Christie:, however would the people be not able to donate once the fundraiser is over? It is just creating an uneasy and unneeded sense of urgency. It is like say a youtuber who knows people will subscribe to his channel once they see at least of his video, but for that he puts a clickbait thumbnail over his video. It is not up to the standards of Wikipedia. Rather like me, many would take the wrong meaning out of it, especially from non English speaking countries. By the way I've started a discussion at meta:Talk:Fundraising#About Wikipedia:Fundraising/2024 banners for this, however I am not closing this because I've also suggested about a set of rules that mediates the banners, discussion about which could still be made here. ExclusiveEditor Notify Me! 16:36, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Clearly it is controversial and subject to negative interpretations, so pull it out pending some further development. BD2412 T 23:11, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It was not made clear what said "testing" would be on. I thought it implied "We will test multiple options and choose the one that gives most fundraising" which is fairly counterproductive. But 20+ days after the feedback, the fundraisers launched anyway with the odd phrasings, without clarity on how much of the 30 day period is "testing" and "production" phase. Soni (talk) 15:08, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Clearly the testing was not of something that it should've been, or else this would not have started. ExclusiveEditor Notify Me! 15:16, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It does look like it was intended to imply things about the WMF's financial position that aren't true. Perhaps there was some thought that people might give because of that false urgency without checking to see if the WMF was really going bust. It's rather unseemly for the WMF, an organization that seeks to educate, to indulge in deception.Wehwalt (talk) 16:40, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the discussion here.

The intention behind the line "it will soon be too late to help us in our fundraiser" was to convey that “this fundraiser will soon be over,” not to suggest any financial threat to Wikipedia. We intentionally avoid peppering Wikipedia with multiple donation buttons, so very few people donate outside of a campaign. The fundraiser is the key moment for giving, and we aim to emphasize the importance of our work with a sense of urgency. The general use of urgency in messaging is an important and appropriate persuasion tool in nonprofit fundraising. It helps potential donors understand that their donation is necessary to advance a cause they care about.

However, ExclusiveEditor, your interpretation of the line as indicating a threat to Wikipedia’s financial stability is enough for us to reconsider its phrasing. We will workshop this line to avoid any misunderstandings.

Currently, we have no active banner campaigns live, aside from a brief systems test this week in India. Soni, to respond to your query, in India, we plan to run 2-3 short tests before the campaign goes live on August 13th. These tests will ensure our payment systems work at scale and help us refresh the content in response to the feedback we have been receiving. Sheetal Puri (WMF) (talk) 22:34, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

and help us refresh the content in response to the feedback we have been receiving Can you elaborate? What feedback do you expect to receive during the 2-3 short test period?
Is that feedback from editors? Readers? Is there a space where said feedback is collected so it's clearer to follow along what the changes are motivated by Soni (talk) 23:27, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Why not use the exact words "this fundraiser will soon be over" if that is what you are trying to say? If you have to decode it for the editing community then presumably readers are having the exact same misinterpretation as us. * Pppery * it has begun... 23:34, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) I can't think of a way of saying "this fundraiser will soon be over" that actually conveys the meaning "this fundraiser will soon be over" in a clear and straightforward way. DuncanHill (talk) 23:35, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Emails to past donors account for a very substantial part of revenue.

For reference, there is similar language in the current English fundraising emails (Email 1, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4) as well. For example:

  • "I’m sorry to interrupt, but it's Friday, June 14, 2024, and time will soon run out to help us because the clock is ticking on this fundraiser." (Email 2)
  • "But time will soon run out for you to help us in this fundraiser, so if you've been holding off until “later”, this is your moment. We need you. Please, remain one of Wikipedia's rare supporters." (Email 3)
  • "I know I said I was done in my last email, but it's Friday, June 14, 2024, and we haven't reached our goal. There are only a few days left in this fundraiser to make a difference. You have shown with your last donation how committed you are to helping us sustain Wikipedia. Please, remain one of the 2% of supporters who propel this important mission forward. It matters. We need you. Please remain an active Wikipedia supporter." (Email 4)

Also worth looking at:

  • "We don’t charge a subscription fee or run ads because we don’t want to put barriers between you and the knowledge you seek. In return, can we count on your support today?" (Email 1)
  • "Major websites have come and gone; new generations are growing up with no memory of a world without the connectivity and instant gratification of the internet. We owe it to them, in a world that is always changing, to keep Wikipedia free for everyone. Like it always was and always should be." (Email 2)
  • "This might be my last chance to request, so I want to make sure this third email reaches everyone who might donate. Right now, we're at a critical stage of our fundraiser." (Email 3)
  • "You have shown with your last donation how committed you are to helping us sustain Wikipedia. Please, remain one of the 2% of supporters who propel this important mission forward. It matters. [...] But I hope you'll agree that in a world where disinformation is everywhere, it is crucial that everyone has access to trustworthy information. We need our community of donors to help us reach our goal, and time will soon run out in this fundraiser." (Email 4)

Emails to past donors account for a very substantial part of revenue. --Andreas JN466 07:23, 13 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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