[Wikipedia-l] Please change the embarrassing donations message

Wed Oct 8 02:23:07 UTC 2003

James-
> Wiki's phenomenal growth requires constant upgrading of technology to give
> you the best service possible. Giving that service requires funding. You now
> can donate money to help your wikipedia remain the fastest growing
> encyclopædia on the internet. For more information, see [[Wikipedia
> donations]].

I don't particularly care either way, but I will point out that I think  
that direct, honest, personal messages -- "We have a server problem, she's  
not gonna take much more, Cap'n!" -- are part of Wikipedia's charm. A  
polished PR message that glosses over our well known performance and  
reliability problems creates distance between the different layers of  
Wikipedia, and that kind of distance may actually make people less likely  
to donate. I consider it a problematic approach to apply classical PR  
strategies to online communities, because the social interaction creates  
completely new requirements of communication.

As a matter of fact, I believe the best course of action would be to make  
the message editable at least by sysops, which is something that should be  
possible soon with all MediaWiki texts if I understood Tim Starling  
correctly.

Regards,

Erik