Foundation wiki feedback/Archive/2004
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- This page is for resolved problems, carried out suggestions and old comments from Wikimedia site feedback in 2004. Please do not add new comments to this archive.
The link 'About Wikimedia Foundation' at the bottom of each page is broken. It points at the non-existent page Wikimedia:About rather than About_Wikimedia.
- This now redirects to the correct page. Angela 02:47, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Suggested Changes to Fundraising Header
Congratulations on removing the redundant "on the planet" from the fundraising header, etc. I suggest additional changes.
Present:
Imagine a world in which every person has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. And we need your help. Please donate today.
Proposed [center all text, note line breaks, last line in larger font]:
+++++++++++++++
Imagine a world where every person has
free access to the sum of all knowledge.
Please donate today.
+++++++++++++++
Rationale: 1) "Where" streamlines "in which." 2) All knowledge on Earth is arguably human. 3) "Please donate today" says everything, by implication, said by "That's what we're doing. And we need your help."
Less says more.
Mislabelled "you need an account" message
The english section, like the fr section, is labelled "Fr:" . +sj+ 18:21, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- If you mean MediaWiki:Loginprompt or MediaWiki:Whitelistedittext, this is fixed now. If not, do you know which page needs fixing? Angela 22:10, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Pounds
any chance you could rename British Pounds to 'Pound Stirling' on the http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising page?
minor I know...
- Done. Angela 22:10, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- How about renaming them to 'pound sterling', with an 'e'? Anyway, I think 'British pound' or 'UK pound' is better, because some people will be mystified by 'pound sterling' but will immediately have some idea about what is being talked about if you say 'UK pound'. publunch 08:56, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Templates for fundraising
Proper variable passing wouldn't be a terrible thing. one day... :)
And while you're at it, spelling "maintenance" correctly would be a good idea too. Derek Ross
- Fixed. Angela 16:41, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Namespace4
What is suit name for Wikimediafoundation.org's namespace 4? Now it is "Wikipedia".;) I think "Wikiemedia" is better than now. How do you think? --Suisui 00:13, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Wikimedia would be better. I've requested this at Non-development tasks for developers. Angela 16:43, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Now fixed. Thanks Tim. Angela 03:09, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Fundraising - why $50,000
Hi, why is the goal of the fundraising $50,000? Is there any explanation for it? Would be nice if you explain it in the details. Thank you.
- I think because $100,000 is too high to ask for :) --Isam 11:13, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Partly because we raised $20000 when the fundraising notice was on the English Wikipedia a few weeks ago (during Jimbo's Slashdot interview) so we thought we should be able to more than double it if the notice was site-wide rather than just on en. Also, 50000 is a nice round number, seems attainable, and is high enough to keep the projects projects for another few months. Angela 16:45, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Just a thought, but £50,000 looks just as round and attainable as $50,000 while actually being worth quite a bit more. -- Derek Ross 21:40, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Fundraising - concern about wording of the "catch phrase"
I'm slightly concerned about the fund raising message on the top of the pages of wikipedia: "Imagine a world in which every person is given free access to all human knowledge. Help us meet this goal by taking part in". This is a catchy sentence indeed but isn't it slightly misleading? It seems like "dirty" marketing to me. Indeed, I really doubt $50,000 would be enough to give FREE access to wikipedia to every person in the world since most people in the world don't have any internet connection. And even if it was possible, wikipedia does not contain (yet) all human knowledge...
Don't get me wrong, I love wikipedia and the goal stated is very nice and I'm all for it but I still don't like how the sentence is worded. I think it would more honest to rephrase that with the short/mid term needs/goals and optionaly have the current sentence afterwards. But in any case, that sentence should be made clear that it is a long term goal and not what will be done with the $50,000. If you want to contact me, see my user page on wikipedia.
- Do you have a suggestion of how the long term goal could be mentioned in a way that does not imply $50000 alone will meet this goal? Angela 17:06, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Well... Since I'm not a native english speaker I'm probably not the best person to write such an important sentence. And anyway, the current sentence is fine with me ("Help us expand access to all human knowledge. Take part in our US$50,000 fundraising drive"). We could argue about the "all" word but well... I won't be THAT picky :) Btw: thanks for taking my concern into consideration.
Using PayPal is dumb.
Did you know that I give up on 80% of all PayPal transactions before completion? I just gave up trying to donate $10. I'd happily donate if it wasn't so f*ing difficult with cr*ppy PayPal. How many other people are having the same experience? --RWM 16:03, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I haven't had any problem. I already had a Paypal account though, maybe you had problems registering ? If you're already registered, well just write your email address and password when they ask, click « accept » several times and you're done... SeeSchloß 16:41, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Do you know of a better system we could use? Note that we do accept mpney via Moneybookers and by post as well. Angela 17:08, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- We have taken in over $100,000 through PayPal. I don't think that is dumb. --Daniel Mayer 21:31, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, we have received most donations in PayPal. But if potential donors say it is dumb, then we must provide an alternative (we already do - this is good!) I myself am not a big fan of PayPal, I think it is one of the most pointless and hard-to-understand payment systems. Moneybookers is excellent, though. Ronline 10:40, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Swedish translation
Moved to /request for an account
- The Swedish translation is done, and I also created the templates needed for donation in Swedish currency (svenska kronor, SEK). When testing the form, I get an error message. Is it possible to fix this, or do you think it best if I removed the Swedish PayPal option? You can see the Swedish fundraising page here --Alers 13:48, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- This is something we need to change in our paypal settings. I've emailed the people with access to the account about whether this is possible. Angela 01:18, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Small French mistakes
In http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Faites_un_don :
- « en leur faisant une don.» should be « en leur faisant un don.»
- « Mensuellement » would be better than « Mensuelle » in the Paypal links.
SeeSchloß 16:41, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Shaihulud is going to fix this. Angela 17:20, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
In http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Quarto/0409/Fr-4, First § : « cératures » should be « créatures »
In http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Quarto/0409/Fr-6,
- « 21 jul 2004 » should be « 21 jul 2003 » like in en.
- « gratuire » should be « gratuite »
In http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Quarto/0409/Fr-7, Maybe it's better to say : « toutes langues confondues » instead of « toutes langues combinées »
- Merci pour votre corrections. Je les ai modifie. --Aphaia 15:48, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Dutch
I would like to translate the main page (with the fund raising texts) to dutch, but it says i need an account for that. Where can i get one? (email me at erik[dot]klein[dot]langenhorst[at]planet[dot]nl or reply here please)
edit: nevermind, i'll reply at the request page :-) ggg
$USD?
The fundraising title says "Fund drive goal: $50,000 USD". This seems a little wierd to me. Isn't $ just a symbol for dollar? And doesn't USD mean U. S. Dollar? Isn't the dollar duplicated? I have seen $50,000, I have seen USD 50,000, I have seen 50,000 USD, but I don't recall ever seeing $50,000 USD. Note that I am not a native speaker, so I may be mistaken, but I am curious.
OBTW the "over €9 an hour" message seems silly to me, too. I suppose that this was computed from that $10. But is that $10 a precise number, or is it only a rounded estimate? Is the difference between USD and EUR so big, that using a rounded estimate of €10 (OK, "almost €10") would be wrong? (It reminds me of a joke: when some country was changing their measurements from imperial to metric, a road sign that used to read "Airport: 7 miles" was changed to "Airport: 11.265408 km".)
--Mormegil 11:24, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Y'know, I think you're right. The USD is just a more international notation; perhaps the $ was added because people who actually spend the things might not know what USD means - I know that would be the case for GBP vs £; euros, of course, have the somewhat unique advantage that they use an invented symbol that isn't in use by any other currency, so can be referred to with just one character (as long as you know how to type it!). I think it should be either "USD 50,000" (officially standard way of writing it, and therefore fairly professional looking) or "$50,000 [US]" (equally unambiguous, and clearer for the average reader, but not very standard); apparently, the IMF also uses "US$". - IMSoP 17:38, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Fundraising: starting date
Please provide an indication of when the operation has officially started, as a clear reference of how promisingly things are going. It would probably encourage even further contributions. I am myself absolutely impressed. Thanks. it:Balubino --213.140.6.112 21:39, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- From Sep 20 till Oct 3. --Aphaia 05:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
membership page has only edit links
the Membership page [1] has 4 links in the main section and they all seem to bring up edit-pages (Action=edit). as a newbie i don't know how to manually tell it i don't want to edit, i want to view. is there supposed to be content there?
- We put a brief description on discussing membership system. Hoping it helps you. --Aphaia 05:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Quarto/1
very awesome, many thanks and congrats to the ppl involved, just one quick note about page eight, "Foundation members should be able to see this newsletter in print before the start of winter." Well for me and everyone else in the four and a half continents in the southern hemisphere, winter has come and gone. Its an easy mistake and not a very important one, but i thought that i would still metion it. otherwise great newsletter.
- You are absolutely correct... this one escaped us... Will correct. Cheers. ant
Typo in newsletter
Great work on the newsletter, very good read! Just wanted to point you to a typo in the caption for the picture of the rolling thunder storm at page 7. Entschede -> Enschede. -- w:User:Solitude
- Thanks. Now fixed. Angela 19:21, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Syntax error
On this page: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects#Meta-Wiki , there's this incorrect sentence:
- Where talking about all of projects, new project, policies, development issues, adminstrative all of wikis.
Can someone fix that please? I don't have an account for wikimediafoundation.org. Ropers 17:04, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Corrected. Thanks. Angela 19:21, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
bequests
Wikimedia can have a donation - over my dead body. I've just looked at your donation page and haven't seen anything about making bequests. This could be a major income stream for the Foundation. publunch 08:55, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Our Projects
Since it was almost vacant, I added some stuffs; please check it and correct it. As for Wikibooks, I gave up to count which project has how many modules - on some projects their main page gave no clue. Hoping someone will write about WikiCommons and WikiSpecies. --Aphaia 02:05, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Btw is it better to list up the stuffs on translation requests there to here; Translation requests? Comments? --Aphaia 07:11, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I think it better here so more people can comment on it rather than restricting it to those with accounts. Angela
Donations in AUD?
What is the easiest way to donate in Australian dollars, preferably not using Paypal? (Electronic funds transfer or credit card would be good)? -- Chuq
- Just an update - I've looked at moneybookers, I either have to transfer to a German bank account (not sure if I can even do that!), or to use my c/c I need to send a copy of the front AND back of the card AND my drivers license.. which I don't feel comfortable doing. -- Chuq
- You could always send an international money order in the post. There's an address on the fundraising page. Angela 03:09, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Fundraising - disclaimer
I am not a lawyer and I am not intimately familiar with copyleft issues. But I have to ask, how is the fundraising page not "solicitation to make a donation"? Is its text not a "request" or "entreaty"? What subtleties am I missing here?
- I think the subtle distinction is that they are not pressuring us into doing it, just making a request. I'm guessing that "solicitation" has some specific legal meaning. -FunnyMan3595
As for nativagion box makes me a bit stressed whenever I need to go through the English correspond page of my target ... and half of the users' of our projects are non-English speakers. IMO I'm not the sole disclaimer, prausibly. I prefer each language has its own navigation box. I don't know it is technically possible or we need to have an additional navigation box within the body (like User:Angela/Sandbox/Home), if the former is possible, it is better. (Could a cookie make it possible?)
- It is half possible. See my message at Wikimedia:User talk:Anthere. I can't seem to make it work in IE though which is why I haven't put it live. On Firefox, it works fine and I was able to get a French sidebar on French pages, or choose to have a French sidebar on every page. If someone understands CSS better than I do, perhaps they could figure out why the z-index is having no effect in IE and find a way to stop the French sidebar appearing behind the English one. Angela 03:14, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Btw can we put an interwiki link to the foundation site from the other project? If not, I would like to have it. --Aphaia 18:54, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
You can use [[Wikimedia: to link to the site. Angela 03:14, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Apparently, multilingual sidebars will be available in the next major release of MediaWiki. Angela 19:17, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Fundraising Page Translation
The fundraising page (in English) is linked to from the Esperanto wiki. I could make a translation of this page into Esperanto if it would be deemed useful; just drop a note on my talk page. 128.205.219.145 12:45, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Wikimedia Fundraising pages/eo
- Here is a template for you. We'll upload it when it is done. Thanks :-) Anthere
Translations may be done from this link :Wikimedia Fundraising pages/en Anthere
- Now translation requests moved to under Translation requests/WMF. If you done, put under there--Suisui 15:48, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Press room
There is Jimbo's message; it seems generally nice but a bit confusable on "Just because I am out of the U.S. do not assume you can't reach me" - this line can be understood as Jimbo is always out of the U.S. How about "because I am frequetly out of ..." or other expression? (Or it reflects only a certain past situation?)--Aphaia 05:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- done.
Our Projects, language mixup
Someone seems to have copied over the English language version of the Wikimedia:Our projects page with the Japanese version. --Millsdavid 01:50, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- thanks for the warning; Fixed. Anthere