Foundation wiki feedback/Archive/2006

This page is for resolved problems, carried out suggestions and old comments from Wikimedia site feedback. Please do not add new comments to this archive.

• Discussion from 2005 is at Wikimedia site feedback/archive/2005.
• Discussion from 2004 is at Wikimedia site feedback/archive/2004.

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Public donor lists malfunctioning

I found that the 3 "public donor lists" at the bottom of the "donations" page are malfunctioning. It seems that the SQL server is having some problems... would the developers please spend some time to fix them? It is discouraging for potential donors to see this and think that Wikimedia is not displaying their contributions and their messages. 12:26, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Idea

No estaria bueno que haya una seccion que sea wikinombres.Donde estarian los nombres y su origen,escudo,personalidad y todo eso? No quedaria bueno?Seria como hacer un diccionario de nombres. Que piensan? English. What do you think of making a new proyect of wiki.The proyect would be named wikinames.It would be a place where users can found their names origin,characteristics or things like that.What do you think? Like a dictionary of names.

That might be a good idea. I know the English Wikipedia has at least one person who might be interested in such a project. 198.179.243.51 15:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Project proposal has its dedicated page and therefore not appropriate to be posted here. You may submit your proposal to that page.

This section will be removed, since discussion should go to the appropriate page. --Aphaia 17:21, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Translations issues

Brazil

The Brazilian Portuguese translation of Jimmy Wales' personal appeal translates "We’re already taking back the Internet. With your help, we can take back the world" as "Já estamos dominando a Internet. Com sua ajuda, podemos dominar o mundo." The word "dominando" translates as "take over" (or more literally, "dominate"), which is quite different than "take back". Ending the message with something that reads as "We're already taking over the internet" is spooky at least. I suggest fixing the translation to "Já estamos tomando de volta a Internet. Com sua ajuda, podemos tomar de volta o mundo", which is a more literal (but still meaningful) translation, though the "take back" metaphor is not as clear in Portuguese. Perhaps one could use "Já estamos resgatando a Internet. Com sua ajuda, podemos resgatando o mundo" (ie, use "we are already rescuing the Internet"...) In any case, I consider both suggestions better than the current one using "dominating". -- LodeRunner from wikipedia.org

Argentine

En: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Quarto/2/Es-5 aparece: "Se que hay proyectos y grupos de estudio que trabajan sobre ello." En castellano, la primera persona singular del presente de indicativo del verbo ser: (yo) sé se escribe con tilde diacrítica para distinguirla del pronombre reflexivo: se.

En general hay muchos errores ortográficos en toda la entrevista. adruiz, 20-feb-2006 Córdoba, Argentina

[1]Donate catalan page

At catalan donation page there is a text like that:

Correu Postal Podeu fer el donatiu a través del correu regular a la següent adreça de Wikimedia:

Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 200 2nd Ave. South #358 St. Petersburg, FL 33701-4313 Si feu el donatiu des de fora dels Estats Units de Nordamèrica, si us plau feu servir una ordre monetària internacional o un xec pagable a qualsevol banc dels E.U.A., per evitar les despeses bancàries. Enviant un xec estranger (o qualsevol altre taló d'un banc no present als E.U.A.) comportarà unes despeses bancàries en superar els $50.

Les ordres de pagament de diners, pagables als E.U.A. estan disponibles a les oficines postals de molts països, i us assegurareu que el vostre donatiu arribarà a Wikimedia.

No envieu monedes per correu.

I thought this text would be beter as follows:

Correu Postal Podeu fer el donatiu a través del correu regular a la següent adreça de Wikimedia: Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 200 2nd Ave. South #358 St. Petersburg, FL 33701-4313 Si feu el donatiu des de fora dels Estats Units d'Amèrica, si us plau, feu servir una ordre monetària internacional o un xec pagable a qualsevol banc dels E.U.A., per evitar les despeses bancàries. Enviar un xec estranger (o qualsevol altre taló d'un banc no present als E.U.A.) comportarà unes despeses bancàries que podrien superar els $50. Les ordres de pagament de diners, pagables als E.U.A. estan disponibles a les oficines postals de molts de països, i us assegurareu que el vostre donatiu arribarà a Wikimedia.

Pérez 09:16, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

infinitive: enviar (verb as a noun) is beter than gerund: enviant, beg you pardon.

Pérez 09:53, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Also: No envieu monedes per correu. It's beter: No envieu diner en efectiu (ni billets ni monedes) per correu. Pérez 09:57, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Also in:

MoneyBookers Nom del compte: donation@wikipedia.org 27 monedes acceptades:

Is beter:

Acepten 27 divises:

Pérez 10:04, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

The notice: Avís: Si us plau, teniu en compte que ni aquesta pàgina ni cap enllaç en qualsevol lloc de Wikimedia enllaçant a aquesta pàgina es considerarà la sol.licitud per a fer un donatiu.

is incomprehensible, a beter translation (form Spanish page) is:

Avís important: Per favor adonau-vos compte que ni aquesta pàgina ni cap enllaç de qualsevol projecte de Wikimedia que apunti a aquesta pàgina ha de considerar-se com una sol·licitud formal per a fer una donació. Pérez 10:15, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for late reply. We appreciate your version. Now they are submitted. --Aphaia 05:23, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Typo

from former "[[Talk:Translation requests/WMF/summary]]"

Ref. Your 'SLOVAK' language pages: The language which you proclaim to be Slovak is not Slovak but some other Slavonic language. Please take note of this very fundamental misrepresentation and put it right. Thanks Igor.(03-04-05)

On 17:40, 3 April 2005, 82.3.32.72 (Talk | block) (Check whether it is really the Slovak language as you claim

Wikiversity on the page "our projects" and "Nuestros proyectos"

The text which follows is to be included on the pages Our projects and Nuestros proyectos:

English version:

Wikiversity is a multidimensional social project dedicated to learning, teaching, research and service. Its primary goals are to:

• Create and host free content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages.
• Develop collaborative learning projects and communities around these materials

At the moment, Wikiversity has these domains:

• Beta_Wikiversity Multilingual coordination of all Wikiversities and sandbox for new wikiversity language projects.
• English_Wikiversity
• German_Wikiversity
• Spanish_Wikiversity

Spanish version:

La Wikiversidad es la versión española de Wikiversity, una comunidad para la creación y el uso de materiales y actividades didácticas libres.

La Wikiversidad es un proyecto social multidimensional dedicado al aprendizaje, enseñanza, investigación y servicio. Sus objetivos principales son:

• Crear y hospedar contenidos libres, materiales de aprendizaje multimedia, recursos y currículos para todas las edades y en todas las lenguas.
• Desarrollar proyectos de aprendizaje colaborativo y comunidades alrededor de estos materiales.

Actualmente la Wikiversidad tiene proyectos en los siguientes dominios:

• Beta_Wikiversity Coordinación plurilingüe de todos los proyectos de Wikiversidad y zona de pruebas para proyectos que todavía no tienen dominio propio.
• Wikiversidad_alemana
• Wikiversidad_española
• Wikiversidad_inglesa

(Adapted from [2] by --Javier Carro 14:07, 19 November 2006 (UTC) )

Thank you, grr, why I could miss your submission during almost one month? Spanish version is now on the foundation wiki. Again, thank you! Aphaia 05:14, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Fundraising

Please report bugs and translation issues below. For suggestions, see Fundraising ideas.

[3]: could someone please change "Miben segítenek az adományaid" to "Miben segítenek az adományaid?" (i.e. add a question mark at the end). Thanks in advance. KovacsUr 15:04, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Hi I suggest you make it a bit clearer that you don't need a credit card to donate (paypal accept various other cards than the logos the donations page shows). I say this because I went to check if you've started accepting other payment methods, and realized I could've made a donation all along!

Hi, I was unable to make a donation with a general-purpose Visa gift card. First I had to choose a whole-dollar amount. Then PayPal kept telling me I got the CAPTCHA wrong. It turns out the site requires cookies. Finally, when I got to the end it complained that they couldn't verify my information. So I gave up.

Could the filtering method for donations include a method for sorting through the highest donations? I did not give but it seems to me people should know who the most philanthropic people and organizations are. Aren't there usually "Bronze, Silver and Gold" members?

Typos

Dutch / Nederlands:

Giften > Doe een gift > Via overschrijving > België

U kan vanuit België een storting toen direct aan de Wikimedia Foundation via een Belgisch rekeningnummer: 068-9999995-01

is it even important????

must be / moet worden:

U kan vanuit België een directe storting doen aan de Wikimedia Foundation via een Belgisch rekeningnummer: 068-9999995-01

Immeëmosol

German:

In Abschnitt:

 Warum wurden gerade diese Unternehmen ausgewählt? Hat es eine Ausschreibung gegeben?

sollen die ersten Worte heißen:

 Wir haben Firmen gefragt, von denen wir wussten,

Lemzwerg 08:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

English:

English:

"My country is not in your list of countries from which you accept donations; why discriminate?

   In any case, we still welcome checks and direct transfers. "

Thats the last line, checks should be cheques, if thats what your refering to.

It shouldn't. Checks is the correct spelling in American English. Angela 23:23, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Bull

Could we please replace "...leverage the available opportunities for matching donations..." with something slightly more meaningful, preferably without using the word "leverage"...?

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_visual_identity_guidelines

Many of the Wikipedia/Wikimedia Foundation logos link to this page as a result of their copyright status. However the page itself only seems to deal with the Wikimedia logo, not the others... can this be clarified somehow? The template CopyrightByWikimedia seems to be where this data is stored. 06:00, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Should fix the donors' list before further fundraising

The pages recording PayPal donors have been down since 27th October. This prevents tributes from being paid to all of Wikimedia's donors since then. Given 1.5 months, this should have been repaired by now. And also, is the Wikimedia Foundation planning on a new Fund Drive for year 2006-2007 like the last year? If they do they would better off fixing those donors' list first, otherwise potential donors will be discouraged, seeing that the Foundation didn't even bother to finish the Donations page is enough for them to believe that the Foundation is not sincere enough. Regards. --A disappointed donor

You can now see all donors since then at fundraising.wikimedia.org. We do sincerely appreciate the help of everyone who chooses to donate. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 06:05, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Typo - Donation FAQ

On the donations FAQ (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising_FAQ)there is an error. Question 1, towards the end of the paragraph. "In any case, we still accept checks and direct transfers." Should this be Cheques?

Check is the USian spelling, in British English it is Cheque. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 21:36, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Donating by Paypal error message

When I tried to donate by paypal, I got the following:

"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.  

Error Detected

The link you have used to enter the PayPal system contains an incorrectly formatted item amount."

I don't know why. If donating is difficult, you'll get fewer donations.

I am receiving the same message from Paypal from the link on the donation page....I would love to donate, but I can't Is anyone reading this? 12.9.33.203 12:59, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

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This is still occurring 3 days later...ANYBODY?

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I think this may occur when you use a decimal point. i.e 20 currency units works ok, but 20.00 currency units does not.

This should be resolved now. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 18:00, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Donation by creadit card

I wanted to give a donation only by creadit card, however I've got a message that I need to register PayPal. I do not want to use PayPal, I had bad experience with it. Can I make an donation without PayPal? Ervinn 15:04, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I have tried to use the credit card donation, which apparently still goes through Paypal, but everytime I try to enter all my data, the security feature won't accept what I type in. Would like to donate, but want to use a credit card, no Paypal.

Can't donate???

I see other people having the same problem, I try to donate using Paypal, I sign into paypal, paypal correctly states that I have 2 credit cards on my account, but asks me to eneter another (no other payment options). I've tried re-entering one of the exisiting cards on my account but only get an error message that the credit card is already on my account---duh

I'm trying to give (again) to this worthy cause, but am about to give up

Fundraising FAQ error

Under the question "I'm told that Wikipedia is supported by Yahoo! or some other company. Why don't you solicit them?" in the FAQ there is a problem with the audit pdf link. It has an extra | at the end of it.

Fixed; thanks. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 06:02, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Another error: It says that Wikipedia is in the top 10 of sites globally, but the source link shows it is currently in place 12. -- 138.227.189.8 10:21, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

position is oscillating... Anthere

Fundraising box

It would be better if "You can give the gift of knowledge by donating to ..." linked to Give the gift of knowledge rather than Fundraising en:User:Henrygb 00:57, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Google Checkout

It may be a good idea to allow user to donate money using Google Checkout. Matan 23:42, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

The donation system

How can I include a similar donation system on my mediawiki?

Receipts by email from Paypal

It would be nice to add a reminder in the Paypal donation page that the email receipt from paypal are often misplaced by many web-mail service providers. Due to many spam emails forging paypal's identity, many spam filters (e.g. mail.yahoo.com's) would put a legitimate paypal email into the SPAM mail folder. Remind the donors to check the spam folder for the receipt before emptying the trash. It happened to me because I use yahoo mail. I believe many other mail filters would do the same too.

Wikimedia UK not mentioned

Could a wikimediafoundation.org editor place a link to Wikimedia UK http://wikimedia.org.uk/ on the Local chapters page please? --06:53, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Our Chapter coordinator refused once a similar request because the Foundation didn't recognize it as a chapter official at that time. It was in this summer and situation hasn't changed. If situation changes, the description will also change. Thank you for your understanding. --Aphaia 18:18, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Postal mail address

This page and the Donation FAQ page do not have the mailing address. I want to send a check. I will have to keep looking for the address. I wish I could edit the FAQ discussion page to ask for this. Richard Renner (rrenner in en.wikipedia)

I've added a section about where to find more information. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 09:02, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Fundraising "dismiss" tag

This is a very minor detail, but on the English Wikipedia, the "dismiss" link for the fundraising box is in the same location that some templates are displayed, such as [[Template:GR]] (Geographic references). When an article using that template is viewed, it is difficult to make out the information displayed by the template. I understand the psychological advantage in laterally distancing the "dismiss" link from the main box, but would it be possible to raise or lower the link so it doesn't cover template information? Thank you. SWAdair 04:38, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Agreement between chapters and Wikimedia Foundation

This document (Wikimedia:Agreement between chapters and Wikimedia Foundation) references two appendicies that are "included with this contract", however neither are linked.

Appendix 1, the visual identity guidelines, is linked in the body of the text but it is a redlink (I think the link should be [[Wikimedia visual identity guidelines]] not [[Wikimedia:Wikimedia visual identity guidelines]], but without being able to view the source I'm not certain.). Appendix 2, a list of "other logos and trademarks", is not linked at all.

Ideally both would be linked in the body of the text (Appendix 1 where it currently is, and Appendix 2 in section 5.1) and as a new section 13 "Appendicies". Thryduulf (en,commons) 11:17, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your comment, the first link is fixed. The second list is not public yet. We'll consdier your proposal about appendices. Thank you for your patience. Aphaia 13:11, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Designated Agent

Still Jimbo right? --172.177.105.164 21:19, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

He is, yes; see Designated agent. However, if you'd like something taken down, you might do better first making a request on the wiki, or if the request includes private information, writing to info-en-c@wikimedia.org, and someone will look at your request; it tends to be a much easier and friendlier process. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 18:47, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Whoa! $690K?

Around 04:00 UTC (28 Dec), I saw, between two page fetches, the donation thermometer go from about $404,000 to $691,000! I might have thought I'd had an old cached page, except I'd expected the $400K around now, given the gradual build of donations over the past week. I looked at the live feed, but saw nothing in the donations to reflect this enormous leap. What happened? Who was so incredibly generous that they upped the kitty by 70%? Or was this a bookkeeping addition of the matching funds thus far? Either way, way to go, Foundation! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:17, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I looked in the live list and there's nothing which would explain this around the time you specified. Largest single donation I saw was $1000 by Eamon Daly. Of course, a large donation probably wouldn't have gone through there anyway I guess. Perhaps it is the cheques and direct deposits were processed? Alternatively, perhaps one of/the anomymous friend matching donor/s did the match. There is the other bar, [4] which includes with matched totals but I'm not sure whether the plan is to eventually include it in the main bar when the matching donation is made. I presume the matching donation isn't realtime/per donation instead the foundation gives an account specificying the total amount donated over the specified time period to the matcher who/which thens pays the foundation Nil Einne 12:51, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Well actually it was there, it was just a little earlier then the time frame you specified "2006-12-27 22:17:00" "286800.00". It was by "Anonymous Donor An anonymous friend" and per discussion elsewhere, it appears I was right, it was the anonymous friend being accounted for. From discussion, it appears there may have also been some cheques and some confusion so the total may have changed a bit as things were adjusted Nil Einne 14:29, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Deductibility of donations > Germany in English

I'm donating a translation of the "Germany" section of http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Deductibility_of_donations, for non-German speakers living in Germany. You may want to include this on the page. (Sebastian Lisken)

In Germany, Wikimedia Deutschland — Society for the Advancement of Free Knowledge was founded in June 2004 as the world’s first local Wikimedia section. It has worked intensively for Wikimedia projects, which are highly popular in Germany, and for Free Knowledge in general. Wikimedia Deutschland has been recognised as “highly eligible for support” by the tax authorities, donations are tax-deductible in Germany. For more information about donating and the society’s work, see http://www.wikimedia.de/spenden/.

Virgin Logo

I am very happy about the Virgin logo being displayed next to the fundraising bar. The virgin logo is property of Virgin. This renders screenshots of ALL wikimedia pages interlectual property of Virgin. I kindly ask you to raise costs and to raise funraising activities for the of freedom of bits. I wish to add that I did find a source that disproves my statement and have an idea about law. Cheers Dirk [5]

No one - including Virgin themlselves, might claim as you are worried. They want to take us over; Virgin Unite is an UK based charitable corporate, and they just want to hurt us. Gruss, --Aphaia 09:58, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Help this kind of fund raising. A lot of Dutch people are happy of this!. When you go to the virgin site already a box thicked which give you wanted information on your computer. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebruiker:Rasbak

Disagreed. It was horrible seeing those small personal donations (like wikipedia entries) add up over the past few days and now we get this stupid ad! The logo and even mention of Virgin United on every page is obvious branding and advertising for the Virgin Group. It's really quite great. It's helping numerous Wikipedia entries across numerous languages. These tags put our superiority in question on every page. It suggests we're unbiased. It does matter whether the Virgin Group requested the tag be put up (I'll assume it did) or the Wikimedia Foundation is simply responding to what it deems to be a bad offer. Are we going to start taking down logos for religious organization or tobacco research institutes? Are we going to start debating who is worthy of our hatred? Either way it amount to a subtle commercialization of Wikipedia. This is precisely the sort of scenario the Enciclopedia Libre fork folks wanted to have [6]. At the time, the concern for advertising resulted in a arrival from Spanish Wikipedia with Enciclopedia Libre actually growing faster and overtaking Spanish Wikipedia until advertising was firmly rejected. Obviously that was enough for us to learn our lesson. ANY amount of money can buy back trust once it's lost. Advertising undermines the confidence and work of wikapedians and we really need a firm, universal and perpetual commitment and policy that advertising messages (including "innocuous logos" or "gratitude messages") will take place again. When will we finally see that promise? 70.53.121.52 22:51, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

It is based on agreement between them and Wikimedia Foundation, represented by the Board. Having placed such logo was based on the Board decision. If you like to have a further discussion, this page is a good place (at any rate this page is dedicated for the entire project not only one of its websites, even the official one of the Foundation). I would discourage you to join the ongoing discussion on foundation-l. --Aphaia 09:46, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

What are the donations for?

I know that I am stupid and all, but is Wikipedia editted by the people with maybe a few moderators? What is the Wikipedia foundation? Does it help sick children that are dying? Or does it just fund people's salaries? Chewka 18:56, 28 December 2006 (UTC)chewka

oooh, The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit devoted to sharing free information with every person in the world. Our projects collect this content from people around the world, process it, and make it readily available online in over 200 languages. These efforts are supported through the generosity of people like you, who believe that knowledge means power and that knowledge should be free.

see I didnt know that, but I would rather donate if they helped sick children that are dying.

Chewka 18:56, 28 December 2006 (UTC)Chewka (again)

See also the description of what we need the money for—it's more expensive to keep the site up than you might think! Indeed, lots of others need help everywhere; we believe ours is an important enough goal to devote our resources to. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 18:41, 1 January 2007 (UTC)