MediaWiki talk:Sitenotice

/Archive 1- Covers Feb.-Mar. 2005 and Sept. 2005 fundraising notices; debate on Katrina charity links.

Header

Nice grammar in the header there.--72.49.62.205

Advert announcement

I think it's a significantly big issue that there should be a link to it in the sitenotice. —Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 03:21, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

it's a message for editors and for the most part heavy editors at that. If there must be a message MediaWiki:Watchdetails would be a far more logical place.Geni 03:22, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Done. Agree with Geni. ~~ N (t/c) 03:26, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Yeah I'm sorry about the revert I saw Sitenotice on my watchlist and just blind reverted. I want to make it clear that at this time I neither endorse nor opose placeing the message on watchlists.Geni 03:31, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm not too annoyed at Geni, I'm more annoyed at Zscout370 for abusing the rollback button, the one meant for rolling back vandalism. Redwolf24 (talk) 03:43, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Coming soon

Wikimedia's board of trustees has agreed to a partnership deal with answers.com. The extra money will be used to help people in under-developed contries

For more information, click here.

I will be posting the above 30 days after October 20th. November 19th that is, when the tool actually appears. I have Jimbo's support in IRC, so I hope I won't be reverted this time. Redwolf24 (talk) 03:44, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

So you want to oppose what is widly viewed as an advitiseing deal [1] with an advert? I think there are better ways to deal with this.Geni 03:51, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

We went over this. It's not advertisement in the slightest, it's news... Redwolf24 (talk) 08:12, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I will note here that I only discover about this sitenotice today. I was never told about this notice and I do not approve the text as is. But well. My questiohn : how long has Jimbo agreed for the site notice to stay up ? I hope not 60 days or I garantee the site will not be working at all any more before that date, because we need to do a fundraising before the end of the year. Anthere 08:06, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I'd only have it up for one day, any longer would just be obnoxious, and feel free to work the wording ant. Redwolf24 (talk) 08:12, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Where do you get the November 19 date from? Have you read Wikipedia talk:Tools/1-Click Answers where Jimmy has attempted to clarify that this is not an advertising. Angela. 09:41, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

This is a really bad use of the site notice and use of the word 'advertising' is both misleading and inflamatory (since the ads would be on a copy of Wikipedia content hosted by Answers.com and would not be on Wikipedia itself). Modified wording should just go on the annoucements page and maybe on RC. But not here. I do not support having this message displayed at all. --mav 14:57, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly with Mav, and am surprised to hear you say that Jimbo agreed to the message, especially using the word "advertising", which he has made clear is not an accurate description of the deal. — Dan | Talk 15:44, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I strongly disapprove of this sitenotice as written. I think it will be fine if people want to have a sitenotice when the answers.com tool is available, but really, Redwolf24, it should be accurate and not provocative.--Jimbo Wales 20:38, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I strongly recommend against placing such a message. -Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 20:39, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Changed 'advertisement' to 'partnership'. And re: Angela on November 19th... Jimmy said in a PM that the Tools link will appear 30 days after October 20th. 10/20+30 days=11/19. But why did you ask about that? You know the details of the deal... And in the loosest definition, this is advertisement, but I fully agree calling it advertising will be provocative. I think sitenotice is the best path (don't worry it'll only be for about 24 hours) as not every wikipedian is an RC patroller, and not every wikipedian even has a watchlist (i.e. 0 items on it, I can name an admin without a list right now). Redwolf24 (talk) 00:01, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

(When I said 'you know the details of the deal' I didn't say it in a disrespectful way, I meant it in a 'wtf, maybe Jimbo was wrong' way.) Angela tells me on IRC that this will come about in January, and so maybe it won't be November 19th, but maybe January. Redwolf24 (talk) 00:22, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

"The community-written free encyclopedia"

"The free encyclopedia" is the project's byline, and has been for quite some time. Changing the sitenotice to bring it out of line with this warrants more than a few minutes' discussion on IRC, without mention of the fact that the wording is extremely awkward. Austin Hair ✍ ✉ 03:40, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

• You want MediaWiki:Tagline. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-12-7 03:43
  • Whoops, chalk one up to distracted editing. Austin Hair ✍ ✉ 03:45, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Jimbo's request

Jimbo has requested that we add something either in here or in the Tagline letting people know in some sense that either "anyone can edit" or that Wikipedia should be "taken with a grain of salt". My suggestion is: "All content should be verified from multiple sources", since this isn't wishy-washy, and doesn't sound compromising. Any other suggestions? Of course, nobody is going to agree completely on any changes, but it is better to put something up than to debate about it forever. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-12-7 14:20

I think that if something is put up (And I don't think it should be) then it will have to be legalistic. Something like this:

"While every effort is made by Wikimedia and its volunteer editors to maintain articles of the highest level of quality, Wikimedia does not accept responsibility for any personal loss due to inaccuracy of site content."

Seabhcán 15:27, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Bigger fundraiser notice

Jimbo, Mav, and others are interested in experimenting with more prominent fundraising notices. For now, it will be restricted to the main page, using {{qif}} as shown below:

{{qif
  |test={{booleq|Brian0918/test|Brian0918/test}}
  |then=<div name="fundraising" id="fundraising" style="margin-top:10px;"><center><big>'''[[Wikimedia:Wikimedia needs your help|Wikimedia needs your help]]''' in its current fund drive. See [[wikimedia:Fundraising#Donation_methods|our fundraising page]] for details.</big></center></div>
  |else=<div name="fundraising" id="fundraising" style="margin-top:5px;"><center>'''[[Wikimedia:Wikimedia needs your help|Wikimedia needs your help]]''' in its current fund drive. See [[wikimedia:Fundraising#Donation_methods|our fundraising page]] for details.</center></div>
}}

This will produce the normal appearance on any other page, but on the main page will show up a little larger. Any other suggestions for making the message more prominent (since Jimbo is not content with simply making the message bigger). — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2005-12-16 19:47