[theforum] colors & support block

[Erika]

Martin Burns wrote:
> Erika wrote:
> 
>> donate is the only other one I remember kicking around the idea of a  
>> color to, (yellow/gold). In light of the newist article and other ad  
>> research I recall, my tendency is not to make support requests  
>> overly bright (I mean, if we do a front page panel) but in fact to  
>> make it one of the more subtly colored things. as for the page  
>> itself, not sure of yellow. a little goes a long ways.
> 
> 
> I think there's a few things here:
> 
> 1) I'd agree with you if we were showing the support block to  
> everyone. But we are (were until it was disabled - BAD idea; I'd also  
> like to work out why when re-enabling it, it still fails to appear)  
> only showing it to logged in users, ie those who have an existing  
> relationship with us

There are *so* many things that don't work on current site, esp for 
logged-in people (forms etc) ... anyway... beyond that...

You can have an existing relationship w/ evolt and never make a user 
acct.  We don't have any great rewards for, or motivation toward making 
an acct aside from leaving comments on the site or submitting an 
article.  (see first sentence)

I personally think the donation option should be visible to all 
visitors, and not look garish to anyone.

> real content, so no blinky/moving stuff, but let's not be scared of  
> asking and highlighting that we're doing so.

Basing my comments both on personal preference, findings from the 
article that is currently on top of evolt.org, and other research from 
years past on user responses to banner ads (intuitive avoidance) and so 
forth.

> dropping. Assuming we won't countenance ads on weo (and I think our  
> audience is so used to seeing them elsewhere that that wouldn't be  
> such A Bad Thing any more)

worth revisiting if we need the money to survive.  Another idea would be 
to do a fundraiser like wikipedia is currently undergoing.

I'm thinking a lot of the revolution is now to be found in wikipedia....

Recently Bitch magazine (rad pdx feminist zine) had to raise $30,000 and 
did so by filling up a wiener dog w/ every donation....

FWIW I would like to see us to continue our tradition of creative and 
nontraditional solutions to problems.

>  then we have to get the money from  
> elsewhere. Which means our members[2], and we have to get used to and  
> be comfortable with asking. As Mark Twain put it:
> "The man who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers down a well is  
> not as apt to get the dollars as he who climbs a tree and hollers"

This was before the internet and also before advertising burnout I think 
we now experience.  Part of our brand IMO is "class." and creativity.

> Therefore, we downplaying it and making it the weakest block on the  
> page is the exact reverse of what we should do.

subtle ain't the same as weak.  again, IMO visible to all.

> Oh, and please, please, let's not call it 'donate' 

Agreed.


Erika

PS I asked last time I was on #evolt if we are going for the whole "2.0" 
let's have two completely different navigation and options for logged in 
or logged out users, or if we're gonna be more oldschool (flickr vs 
craigslist -- facebook vs ALA).  And I'd like to know why, specifically, 
we should make one choice vs the other.