14 DAY TRIAL // Wikipedia has kicked off this year's fundraising campaign and it's putting the lessons learned in the previous years to good use. This week, Wikipedia has changed the banner showing up on top of every page urging people to give something back, with a message from Wikipedia programmer (his job title is actually Senior Designer) Brandon Harris.
And yes, before you ask, his picture is still on the left, above the title of the page, most likely to confuse at least some people.
A lot of people complained, mostly just joking, about the placement of the photo. It seemed like poor planning by Wikipedia, but the site doesn't do something like this without a lot of research.
In fact, that's exactly what Harris said in a Reddit AMA he held earlier talking about Wikipedia and the fundraising campaign in particular. The AMA is quite interesting too, there's some stuff in there that Wikipedia fans will definitely like.
One Redditor asked whether Wikipedia intentionally put the photo on the left, knowing that people will make fun of it and it may go viral.
"It's intentional, but I don't believe it was actually designed that way from the start. There have been many experiments over time as to the optimal position of the photos, and it just so happens that the left side is where it's got to be," he explained.
And you don't just have to take his word for it, in just two weeks since the 2011 campaign launched, Wikipedia has raised $9.5 million, €7.17 million from 497,000 contributions, so whatever they're doing, they're doing it right.
Still, the site has a lot more to go before it reaches its goal of almost $30 million, €22.6 million this year. Which is to say, head on over to the donation page and make sure Wikipedia is around next year and the one after that.