Talk:Wikivoyage/Launch press release

More positivity

What about having a more positive tone? Rather than having digs at IB, why not mention it as little as possible. It is time for WV to move forward positively, rather than rehash the negatives of the past. Why not cover the IB past in very neutral terms, and be glowingly positive about the future. One of the aims should be to attract readers and editors; mention of legal suits against members of the volunteer community is hardly encouraging. And the word "forked" is too geeky. Nurg (talk) 02:46, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I agree; we need less emphasis on how we got here and more about where we're going forward. I have no problem mentioning Evan and Maj, as they remain the spiritual founders of the project, but too many details about the history just makes it sound vindictive. LtPowers (talk) 03:17, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

We still need a story. And a new story usually requires two sides. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:53, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

We can do both; drama and vindictiveness are good to hook the journos and then lots of positivity to push our story going forward. That said, a good punchy press release does need some literary flair; Jpatokal, where art thou? -- Alice^✉ 04:02, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Count me as one of those who thinks we need to focus on the positive and where we're going. We need to get new people excited about contributing and I'm not convinced rehashing the past and our issues with IB are going to do it. -Shaundd (talk) 06:28, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I also think we should be much more positive. I've overhauled the text a bit and removed mention of the lawsuit. We do need to cover the reasons why the English community of Wikitravel moved to Wikivoyage and why Wikivoyage is moving to the WMF and that is hard to explain without mentioning IB and forking/discontent. The latest revision simply mentions that Wikivoyage was created by German contributors discontented w/IB's commercial motives and that dissatisfaction with IB led WT users to propose/desire the move to WV and onwards to the WMF. It could probably use some more positive comments regarding the future of WV. —The preceding comment was added by AHeneen (talk • contribs)

Still think we need to make it exciting or no one will take interest. The legal stuff does make it more exciting and thus we should us it to our advantage. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 13:45, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

One paragraph about the history is enough. New contributors doesn't need to know what happened in the past. The project and the community is here and now and wants to grow. Concerning me we can leave out everything about the history. -- DerFussi 17:32, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

The fork is the story. Otherwise we would still be at IB. Something happened. The story is what happened. IB sponsored several language versions of our travelguide wiki commons community for several years with an eye at turning a profit but their profit goal and their lack of creative inspiration and development at the server level, in the eyes of the volunteer community movers, proved insufficient to keep the community at IB. We are a seasoned community. We are not a new project. We moved to and have now launched at WMF. We are proud that we have exercised this freedom to move, enshrined in the Creative Commons copyright license we use. This is a story of freedom and of our community standing up for ourselves and acting together. This is a story of commons being carried forward. This is not a new project, it is an enduring Internet community that is taking wing to leave venture capital and advertising revenue sponsored hosting and is settling onto volunteer and donation sponsored servers at WMF to better care-take and further develop our commons. This commons is the worlds most amazing and incredible travel wiki--it belongs to its authors, is licensed to all newcomers, not to any one host or publisher to exclusively own but only to have the honor of nurturing and supporting if they can, and the freedom to profit in doing so, or see us move. This move is a profound and momentous event in the history of free content on the Internet, not a new project but a new home for an amazing 9 year old free content wordlwide travelguide that anyone can edit and that has wearied of the limitations of its former lackluster host and moved to a new one. It is an unfortunate loss of venture capital but a gain for the commons. Why else would anyone care? We are not another mirror motivated by advertising profit. We are, or at least imagine ourselves to be, the creative volunteer travelguide community that generates the commons, that writes and organizes the travelguide. We are not professional travel writers hired to write about travel. We are something else--something the Internet makes possible. What we are and what is happening right now, this historic move together for the better of our community travelguide commons, is the story. --Rogerhc (talk) 06:17, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Wonderful, please edit this press release. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:51, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

The press release is now in excellent shape. Thanks all! --Rogerhc (talk) 06:16, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

We weren't able to get any quotations, then? LtPowers (talk) 13:47, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes we can add quotes. The WMF is releasing an official press release which will be linking to the community one (this one here). There press release is very much based on this one plus a quote from Sue Gardner. We can add quotes ourselves here. They will release their press release the day before so no new outlets get more than a days lead. I may meet with them latter this pm. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:15, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi all, Matthew Roth with the Communications team at the Wikimedia Foundation. We're working on a press release that we'll send to our large press list on Tuesday for the official launch, based in part on this here. Because of the ongoing lawsuits that have resulted around this transition, however, General Counsel at the WMF has advised that we not explicitly reference IB or Wikitravel in any official announcement, as that could jeopardize the very positive steps that have been made on those fronts. We'll share the release with you here on Monday, but we don't want to scoop the announcement by putting it in a public place too early. It defeats the purpose of a big press announcement, and I think this should get some good coverage. More updates soon. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions here, talk page, or my email as well, if you like mrothwikimedia.org Matthew (WMF) (talk) 00:01, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Quotations

Press releases normally have some quotations from important figures. Can we get Sue Gardner or Jimmy Wales? I'd also like to have one or two from Evan or Maj. LtPowers (talk) 15:57, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Great idea. I will email Sue Gardner. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:03, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Agree with LtPowers. This page was just an impromptu attempt by one WV user to write up a press release and a few of us have edited it. I doubt the higher-ups at WMF are aware of this and would have probably otherwise created their own release. Are user-generated releases often made? Or are they just documents created by (a) WMF staff member(s)? At any rate, there is still plenty of time to get WMF's attention and this page has some good content..just needs to be polished. Of course, there could be a user-created press release here on WV...this page linked to in a site message across the top...while WMF does their own formal press release. AHeneen (talk) 20:12, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I see this as a group effort. Have just pinged Jimmy Wales, Sue Gardner and Jay Walsh to get their input. The WMF primarily provides hosting. The editor community primarily takes care of content. Both are typically involved in outreach. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:19, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I contacted Evan re: a quote, and will also contact the WV board members. --Peter ^Talk 17:39, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Great thanks. Jay Walsh, the public relations person at the WMF, is going to help. Jimmy Wales and Sue Gardner (+/-) other board members will comment aswell. Does anyone want to provide quotes from the editor community? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:44, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Site wide notice

The proposed notice is being prepared at Wikivoyage 2013/CentralNotice

Hi all! For the Central Notice (site-wide notice) that is referred to on the Main Page, you need to consider a few things including which wikis you want it on, the languages you want it on, whether it's logged in only (we can even do admin only but I don't think that would be needed here) and also the time period that you would want it to run for.

Towards the end of this year I know Fundraising has plans to run a few 'thank you' banners, and we want to avoid 'banner fatigue' whereby people get tired of seeing the Central Notice banners and so are less likely to be impacted by the message that it is conveying. To that end please see CentralNotice/Calendar which shows what's currently planned for banners which should help you to find a slot for the Wikivoyage banners. I am happy to answer any questions and also point some people with more expertise about getting the most effective banners toward this page if you need help with design etc. Thehelpfulone 17:54, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

I have added us to the table. 5 days. This will occur in collaboration with Wikipedia's birthday. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:56, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Non-commercial

I don't like the "free of commercial influence" idea; it sounds like the project is going to be some kind of anti-commercial hippies-only travel thing. Not that I mind that kind of travel, but it's not the only kind of travel covered in WV. There are a lot of companies that have participated in the past; see Wikivoyage:Welcome, business owners and Wikivoyage:Welcome, tourism professionals.

I realize that the idea is to distance from Wikitravel and IB, but maybe there's another way to say it that's framed positively rather than negatively? How about, "running on the world-class servers of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation"? Or maybe something about the goals of Wikimedia Foundation... or even a statement like "There will never be ads on Wikivoyage." --EvanProdromou (talk) 19:23, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

I guess what I was trying to convey was that businesses would be written about independent of us getting kickbacks from said business. Feel free to change the wording, am not attached to it. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:51, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Focusing more on the fact that content and technical development will be directed by the community's appraisal of what it needs to further the project's goal, rather than furthering advertising revenue, might be a better tack. --Peter ^Talk 04:57, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Hopes for the future

I think there might be some great things to talk about as positive developments.

• Wikivoyage will draw on the huge pool of editors at Wikipedia and other WMF sites.
• Wikivoyage will attract a new segment of the Internet population who many not have edited other WMF sites before.
• Wikivoyage will benefit from the MediaWiki hosting at WMF. Home-grown software; nobody runs it better.

--EvanProdromou (talk) 19:58, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Yes please add Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:58, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Date

If we launch on the 15th of January it will occur on Wikipedia's Birthday. Jay Walsh thinks that this would be a good way to promote both events. Doc James (talk · contribs · email)

Will all logo stuff be finished by then? I think that the new logo should be in place by the official launch date. Voting seems to have ended and the remaining tasks seems to get someone to close the discussion and handle some legal matters. Is that right? How long would the legal matters take, considering that there are lots of holidays coming up around Christmas? --Stefan2 (talk) 13:14, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

If we are happy with the current choice we could be ready for Jan15th I think. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:42, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Sounds good. -- DerFussi 17:33, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

WMF

The WMF have a usual style that they use for press releases. I have asked them to come and edit this article directly. The style guideline is here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF_Press_Release_Template_Sample.pdf Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:57, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

A Q&A page might also be useful, combining some of what is available at voy:Wikivoyage:FAQ with Q&A's from the WMF about their reasons for adding Wikivoyage into the fold, how it came about, how excited they are (not to put words in their mouths...but hopefully they are!), and plans for the future? AHeneen (talk) 04:07, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Move from WV to Meta

After moving this, one important thing was not taken care of...attribution. The handful of people who edited the press release and this talk page when it was on WV need to be merged into the history (if possible) or a notice needs to be added with a link to voy:Wikivoyage:Press release and voy:Wikivoyage talk:Press release. I also think you've confused readers on here, who don't understand the context...that this was created on Wikivoyage and originally intended for that project (not necessarily Meta...like with regards to site notice.) Also, what are we trying to accomplish here? The press release template linked to seems rather dry. Is this supposed to become a text press release, or will this be something that will be linked to from elsewhere (like from other WMF projects) in which case in-line links are appropriate...like maybe a link within the site notice posted on WMF projects? I've gone ahead and changed all in-line links to :voy: where appropriate, but not sure if in-line links are really important if this release will be hosted here, rather than on WV. AHeneen (talk) 04:01, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks good point. Not sure exactly how to do this. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:14, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

I have made a request here. –sumone10154^(talk) 03:30, 11 January 2013 (UTC)