text:
In which context would the difference in licensing rules between CC SA 3.0 and CC SA 4.0 actually matter?
Currently there's a big controversy over SE changing the licensing from CC 3.0 to CC 4.0. Regardless of whether this change was legally solid or not, could someone provide a specific example of how this licensing ambiguity affects our ability to copy, share and reuse content published on SE in the past?
Let's say I find an interesting piece of code on Stack Overflow from 2017 and add it to my open source project with attribution, citing CC BY SA. Could the author of this piece of code claim a copyright violation somehow, given the licensing ambiguity? The way I see it - the code is licensed under either 3.0 or 4.0 and the difference between the licenses is so small in practice that knowing the exact version shouldn't matter. Whoever wrote the code couldn't suddenly claim that the licensing change completely revoked their original CC attribution, making it impossible for others to reuse their content.
Note that I'm not interested in whether or not the licensing change was legal/moral/appropriate/cool. I'm merely asking about how it affects my rights to reuse content posted on SE.
Relevant posts on other sites:
How do you write an attribution if there's ambiguity over which version of Creative Commons applies?
In which context would the difference in licensing rules between CC BY-SA 3.0 and CC BY-SA 4.0 actually matter?
Is there an official guideline from Creative Commons on how a CC-BY-SA 3.0 website could "upgrade" to CC-BY-SA 4.0?
discussion licensing
JonathanReezJonathanReez
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – Journeyman Geek♦ Nov 9 '19 at 6:55
The aspect in which the uncertainty about the license change affects me most in terms of practical considerations is that the usage of the content outside of Stack Overflow is suddenly subject to complicated considerations.
If I don't know if the content is really CC-BY-SA-3.0 or 4.0, I cannot mix with other CC-BY-SA-3.0 content (because the content could be 4.0) and still claim it's 3.0 (because CC-BY-SA is not backwards compatible). I don't even know what license I should write below this content. ("Hey, this is some content that is either under CC-BY-SA-3.0 or 4.0."). Before I was in safe legal territory, now suddenly I'm not even sure what the license is at all. And people who then want to use my mixed content then will even be more unsure about the license. That's really bad and will surely impede innovation.
For me this is a huge practical hindrance. For Stack Overflow Inc. it may not matter that much because they can use the content for their purpose anyway (independent of 3.0 or 4.0) but for all other thinkable uses of the content it is essential to determine the license beyond doubt (because CC-BY-SA-3.0 is not 4.0). Apart from the differences in the license itself, the most practical problem is indeed the uncertainty about it. And the company has done zero to help bringing certainty. I know it because I have asked them for clarification multiple times and never got any answer. That's why I'm a bit unsatisfied with them.
TrilarionTrilarion
In almost all cases, you can know the license. If it was posted before September 5, 2019 and hasn't been edited since then, it is under CC-BY-SA 3.0 (Creative Commons licenses can't be revoked) and may be under CC-BY-SA 4.0. If it was posted on or after September 5, 2019, it is under CC-BY-SA 4.0 and is not under CC-BY-SA 3.0. If it was posted before the changeover and edited after, it's almost certainly available under CC-BY-SA 4.0, since editing probably counts as creating an "adaptation" for the purposes of the license, which permits upgrading from 3.0 to 4.0. – Mark Nov 8 '19 at 20:24
@Mark Is there a way to see the license for each question or answer? – endolith Nov 8 '19 at 21:16
@Mark, that's interesting; does that mean that anyone who wants to use a currently 3.0-only post under the 4.0 licence merely needs to edit the post (minorly reword some stuff, for example), and it will automatically become 4.0? – Nate S. Nov 8 '19 at 21:52
@Mark Another slight wrinkle: any post made before April 8, 2011 is actually licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5, not 3.0. – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog Nov 9 '19 at 0:31
There are two other changes that are relevant:
If you violate the terms of the license, with version 3.0 your rights to use the content are immediately revoked, whereas with 4.0, you're given a 30-day grace period to correct any violation.
While you can use 3.0 content in a 4.0 work, you generally can't use 4.0 content in an exclusively 3.0 work. For example, code snippets published after the license change on Stack Overflow can't be posted to Wikipedia, an exclusively 3.0 work. (As far as I can best tell.)
Sonic the Anonymous HedgehogSonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
can't be posted to Wikipedia. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cc-by-sa-4.0](License template). This template is used on approximately 11,000 pages. Someone should probably tell them 😓 – Pace Nov 7 '19 at 23:19
@Pace "This template should only be used on file pages. The text of Wikipedia is a 3.0 work, while other things are licensed under Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use under which the 4.0 license is compatible. – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog Nov 7 '19 at 23:23
But you can always quote (a short section) regardless of license. – curiousdannii Nov 8 '19 at 4:05
@curiousdannii Yes, that falls under "fair use" as defined in U.S. copyright law, and applies to all copyrighted works. – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog Nov 8 '19 at 4:09
That's of course only true if you are in the US. I am not and there is no "fair use" where I live. – Josef says Reinstate Monica Nov 8 '19 at 11:38
In your specific scenario of incorporating code into your project, the difference between 3.0 and 4.0 is irrelevant. Section 4b of the 3.0 license has the following clause:
You may Distribute or Publicly Perform an Adaptation only under the terms of: (i) this License; (ii) a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License...
By incorporating the code into your project, you are unambiguously creating an "adaptation" as defined in section 1 of the license, and are free to use the code under either CC-BY-SA 3.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0 (or any later version of CC-BY-SA).*
The Creative Commons website has a page on the differences between license versions. In general, as a re-user:
You could assert database rights over the content under 3.0, but can't under 4.0.
4.0 explicitly grants permission to crack any DRM applied to the content; under 3.0, this was ambiguous.
If you're violating the terms of the license, you've got a 30-day grace period to fix the violation; under 3.0, the license is terminated immediately.
Under 3.0, the author can assert moral rights to a greater extent than under 4.0.
4.0 grants slightly more flexibility in how you comply with the attribution and license-notification provisions, but also changes what elements must be included for proper attribution.
For most re-users, it's the attribution changes that are most likely to cause problems. It's possible to simultaneously be in compliance with 3.0 and 4.0, but it requires being careful about what you're doing.
*Note: you'd need to license the entire project under the license if you do this, and Creative Commons does not recommend using CC licenses other than CC-0 for software.
Note that if you do that, you have to license your entire project as CC-BY-SA. – OrangeDog Nov 8 '19 at 10:38
The difference wouldn't matter much. What matters is that the whole content on Stack Exchange has no valid license and you are not allowed to use it at all (except content completely created after the illegal license change).
There is at least one user here who thankfully tries to get clarity about the license change by suing Stack Exchange if needed. I will donate to their GoFundMe and if you want to know if you are allowed to use any Stack Exchange content at all without breaking the law you should too!
Josef says Reinstate MonicaJosef says Reinstate Monica
What about the data dumps containing the old content? Since they're still available, isn't all SE content from the past licensed as 3.0 in perpetuity? – JonathanReez Nov 8 '19 at 15:10
@JonathanReezSupportsMonica The original license was revoked the second they violated it. – jhpratt GOFUNDME RELICENSING Nov 8 '19 at 18:41
@jhpratt if I download a data dump from SE, how can any actions taken by SE later on revoke said license? Same applies for copies of posts hosted on archive.org - they're licensed under CC-BY-SA no matter what, aren't they? – JonathanReez Nov 8 '19 at 18:42
@JonathanReezSupportsMonica To be clear, Stack Exchange loses the right to use the content under CC. This also means they can no longer distribute it under those terms. The end user presumably has nothing to worry about. – jhpratt GOFUNDME RELICENSING Nov 8 '19 at 18:44
Josef - IMO, you'd need a lot more than $1000 to sue SE over this. $30k was estimated by Monica's lawyer and that's a much simpler defamation case. Here we're talking about complex licensing issues with few precedents. $100k would be a realistic starting figure. – JonathanReez Nov 8 '19 at 18:47
@JonathanReezSupportsMonica, Monica is willing to accept a settlement other than a monetary payout, and in fact would prefer such a settlement, so the lawyer needs to be paid up-front. A copyright-infringement suit is likely to involve a monetary payout, in which case the lawyer can expect to be paid mostly from the settlement funds. – Mark Nov 8 '19 at 21:30
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged discussion licensing .
Was the retroactive change to CC BY-SA 4.0 approved by Stack Exchange's lawyers?
Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow have moved to CC BY-SA 4.0
Stack Exchange should stop using the Creative Commons logo
Does SE need to switch to CC-BY-SA 4.0?
Let's take a look at the interaction between staff and the "power users" of the network
SEDE footer still links to version 3.0 of Creative Commons license


text:
MUSIC: Chris Thile, Asbury University (Wilmore)
« Gigs: Beneath Oblivion, Green Lantern
Gigs: Eskimo Brothers, Parlay Social »
Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Chris Thile will perform on Tuesday, November 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Asbury University's Hughes Auditorium.
"A mandolinist, composer and vocalist, Chris Thile is a member of Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek. He has won Grammy Awards for his work on 'The Goat Rodeo Sessions,' collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan, and for his collaborative album with Edgar Meyer, 'Bass + Mandolin,' which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2015.
"In 2012, Thile was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his innovative musicianship. The MacArthur Fellows Program 'awards unrestricted $625,000 fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.'
Concerts, MUSIC
1 Macklem Drive
Wilmore, KY 40390

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Here are some memes, our cultural transmissions to the world. Please help spread them around on Facebook, Tumbler, Instagram, and all those other interwebby places that the common folk tend to gather. Those efforts would be most obliged. Our hopes are to bring a level of awareness and humor while making people think... we hear that is not as popular as in my day, why when we were building this fine country it was no laughing matter.


text:
Daily Science
Smartphones are warming the planet far more than you think
Greenhouse gas emissions from computers, phones, and data centers could grow from about 1 percent of global emissions in 2007 to over 14 percent in 2040. The carbon footprint of smartphones will exceed that of desktop computers, laptops, and displays.
By Prachi Patel
Cars, factories, and even cows quickly get blame for contributing to climate change. But your smartphone is a fast-growing offender, a new study suggests.
Greenhouse gas emissions of the Information and Communications Industry (ICT)—which includes computers and phones but also infrastructure like data centers—could grow from about 1 percent of global emissions in 2007 to over 14 percent in 2040, researchers at McMaster University in Canada report in the Journal of Cleaner Production. That's more than half the current carbon footprint of the entire transportation sector.
Among devices, smartphones will be worse for the environment. By 2020, their carbon footprint will exceed that of desktop computers, laptops, and displays, the study shows.
Greenhouse gas emissions of ICT often fly under the radar. If anything, the industry is "often highly praised for enabling efficiencies that help reduce other industry sectors' footprint," Lotfi Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi write. Online shopping, for example, could cut transport emissions.
To gauge ICT emissions, the duo analyzed the energy it takes to produce and operate consumer devices, as well as the energy it takes to run telecom infrastructure. They found that data centers and telecom networks are energy hogs. Operating them results in about two-thirds of ICT emissions, growing from 215 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 to 764 megatons in 2020.
Meanwhile, a smartphone's energy cost comes from production. Making a phone accounts for 85–95 percent of its annual carbon footprint because manufacturing its electronics and mining the metals that go into them is energy-intensive.
The analysis showed that smartphone emissions will go up from 17 to 125 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2010 and 2020. That's an increase from 4 percent to 11 percent of total ICT emissions. This footprint is driven by the pithy two years that a smartphone is used on average. Sadly, less than 1 percent of smartphones get recycled, this and other studies have found.
So what can be done? For one, the researchers say, government policies and tax incentives should spur the use of renewable energy for operating data centers and manufacturing consumer devices. At the consumer level, we should hold on to our phones as long as possible, and recycle old phones when upgrading to a new one.
Source: Lotfi Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi. Assessing ICT global emissions footprint: Trends to 2040 & recommendations. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2018
GIF by Anthony Antonellis
This new building material has cement-like strength—and it's alive.
By mixing sand, gelatin and bacteria, researchers have made a new kind of brick that could revolutionize sustainable construction.
Prachi Patel
Colombia's hippo population is a fascinating ecological conundrum
emblematic of our mixed-up 21st-century Earth
Brandon Keim
How climate change could change the way we die
A new study predicts more deaths from injuries in a warmer world.
Sarah DeWeerdt
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Our passion is pool design.
We are a family owned business led by an experienced craftsman that has been constructing backyard retreats in Central Florida for over 38 years.
Our goal is to build beautiful quality pools that provide homeowners with the fun, relaxation, and value that they are searching for.


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Temple University's board of trustees has taken a vote of no confidence in President Neil Theobald and announced its intention to dismiss him.
The decision was announced to reporters after the board's regular Tuesday meeting, board spokesman Kevin Feeley said. The vote was unanimous among the 34 of 36 trustees present, he said.
The action comes less than a month after the removal of provost Hai-Lung Dai amid a $22 million financial aid shortfall, and Feeley said the decision was largely based on Theobald's handling of Dai's removal and the deficit.
Feeley told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the financial problem was known a year ago when the deficit was $9 million, but Theobald allowed it to grow rather than correct it.
Feeley said the trustees will vote July 21 on dismissing Theobald, who has led the university for 3½ years, and planned to appoint as acting president chancellor Richard Englert, a former provost who has served as acting president before.
The board earlier Tuesday named Temple law school dean JoAnne Epps as provost, he said.


text:
Date of Incident: July 11, 2021
Institution(s):Zamfara College of Agriculture and Animal Science
Region & Country:Western Africa | Nigeria
On July 11, 2021, armed militia members kidnapped Zamfara College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences Provost Habibu Bukullu.
According to a family member of Bukullu, several persons entered the college's premises around 2 AM local time. Bukullu was kidnapped from his on-campus residence along with two others. There was no evidence of violence, and witnesses say that no gunshots were fired.
Following the incident, local police confirmed that they had deployed forces to investigate the matter and ensure Bukullu's release. On July 14, Bukullu's brother confirmed that he had been released. It is unclear whether a ransom was paid.
The July 11 incident appears to fit a pattern of acts targeting schools and universities in Nigeria, where gunmen and "bandits" have raided campuses and kidnapped students and faculty, often seeking ransom.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about the abduction of a staff member of a higher education institution. State authorities have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of students and staff, including by investigating and holding perpetrators of such acts accountable. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, abductions of members of the higher education community undermine academic freedom, the right to education, and institutional autonomy, and democratic society generally.
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
https://guardian.ng/news/police-confirm-abduction-of-provost-school-teacher-in-zamfara/
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nwest/472915-bandits-kidnap-zamfara-college-provost-teacher-one-other.html
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/07/police-confirm-abduction-of-provost-school-teacher-in-zamfara/
https://humanglemedia.com/college-provost-2-others-abducted-in-northwest-nigeria
https://punchng.com/abducted-college-provost-regains-freedom-in-zamfara/


Kingsdown are one of those traditional US mattress manufacturers that have had to adjust to the times and separate themselves from the crowd by making a name for themselves not only for reliability and quality but also for innovation. Over a century old, Kingsdown's quality workmanship and adaptability got them to the forefront of the quality mattress-making business and we can see in their Body Diagnostics system or "Sleep to Live" as they now call it, their ability to remain creative and to keep pushing the boundaries has helped to keep them there. But what about Kingsdown mattress prices? How affordable are they?
The first thing to point out when looking at prices is that we are looking at beds that use fine quality materials in the bases and the mattresses, including high-tempered steel in the coils and moisture-resistant, allergy and odor-free fabrics; they use a high standard box spring design that has won accolades and awards; and they finish the mattresses by hand. Kingsdown also use the diagnostics system that takes 18 measurements from your body, makes thousands of calculations and then recommends the perfect mattress that will best conform to your individual shape and weight, so they use science and take the guesswork out of the process. The MySide range allows you and your partner to specify each side of the bed exactly how you want it.
Bearing all this in mind you would not expect the Kingsdown mattresses to be very cheap. They vary from around $800 up to $4000, depending on size, exact materials and design. For a standard Queen then budget in the $1500-$2000 range.
If you are considering a Kingsdown then you are considering a box-spring mattress as they don't use memory foam or latex foam, like many other traditional US manufacturers do now. The trick always is to shop around – if there's a particular model you have tried out in the store and like the feel of, then you may be able to pick up a bargain at one of the online retailers.
Kingsdown are one of the oldest, most established manufacturers in the US. They have been at the forefront of mattress making in the country for over 100 years and now distribute to 20 countries around the world. Following is a brief look at the company, what they stand for and what you can expect from a typical Kingsdown bed if you are considering buying one.
Kingsdown are based in North Carolina and they started to make a name for themselves in the early 1900′s by hand-assembling box spring units that developed a reputation for lasting quality and comfort. They survived the difficult war years by using iron springs instead of steel. Later on their scientific approach to mattress design won the company accolades during the 1980′s and 1990′s, culminating in the development of the Body Diagnostics system that is the only computer-based system that helps you choose the perfect mattress for your body type – more about that later.
The ranges made by Kingsdown fall into 4 main brands – Kingsdown, MySide, BedMatch and Sleeping Beauty.
The standard Kingsdown beds are sold as supportive – allowing for proper body alignment of head, shoulders, hips and heels– and pressure-relieving – allowing for a comfortable night's sleep. They are the standard box spring system beds with sturdy foundations that they have built their name on, promising great shock absorption and even distribution of body weight to relieve pressure on joints. These mattresses boast low-pressure sleep surfaces, so that you can stay in one position longer and experience undisturbed sleep. Above the box spring the comfort layers use Kingsdown's Cushion Cloud Construction technology, providing softness that conforms to the body shape and thereby relieves pressure.
The Kingsdown Sleep to Live brand name actually covers the MySide and BedMatch collections and is the latest name for their Sleep Diagnostics system that we mentioned above. These collections use the Sleep to Live diagnostics to match your body type to the right, posture-supporting and maximum comfort mattress, based upon questions asked, 18 careful measurements taken from lying on the diagnostic bed and over 1000 calculations made by their program. Again the two cornerstones of Kingsdown philosophy are proper spinal alignment and pressure relief, which we saw in the Kingsdown mattress described above, but Sleep to Live tailor-designs the perfect combination for you based upon the analysis, rather than relying on guesswork.
If you are shopping with a partner the diagnostic bed will measure you both and recommend the sleep surface that is best suited to each of you. The MySide collection allows you to have one side of the bed adapted to your body type and the other side adapted to your partner's body type, once the Sleep to Live Diagnostics system has analyzed what's best for you.
You can see that Kingsdown, despite being one of the traditional, established names in bed manufacturing, are also innovators within the industry. They still stand by the principals of the mattresses that have built their name for reliability but they incorporate the latest technology in achieving that nowadays.
According to the Kingsdown sales literature, its Body System mattress makes allowances for each individual body type, for that read your individual body type – to ensure you get the support and comfort that you require. One aim of this Kingsdown Body System mattress review is to determine whether this is fact or not.
We have to question whether an inner-spring mattress, which is what the Body System and every other Kingsdown mattress is, can ever give the same level of comfort of the newer memory foam mattresses. The inner-spring mattress is based on old technology, but that technology has been adapted and improved on immensely over the years, and now some of the world's finest mattresses are built around the inner-spring system.
Kingsdown don't manufacture their own components for the Body System mattress, but that's not necessarily a negative thing, as they are no different from any of the major manufacturers in that matter. Where all manufacturers claim to be unique is in their design and manufacturing processes. Kingsdown's unique selling proposition is the computer technology it uses to constantly develop cutting edge mattress technology.
What are the advantages of the Body System mattress?
Because Kingsdown mattresses are not as well known as such as Sealy or Simmons, you can buy a similar quality mattress for considerably less than you would pay for one of the leading brands.
Each Kingsdown Body System mattress is topped with a 10 inch thick layer of luxury foam to make the mattress as comfortable as possible.
A Mattress' greatest enemy is moisture, and to counter that, Kingsdown has incorporated a Flexatron™ insulator to prevent sweat being absorbed. This has the added benefit of eliminating odors, and making the mattress mildew resistant.
Kingsdown's Cushion Cloud™ construction ensures that the comfort layers of the mattress provides proper spinal alignment so that any pressure points are eliminated.
The Kingsdown Body System mattress is a very heavy mattress which makes it very difficult to move. This is not a huge disadvantage, because mattresses don't need moving too often, but it is one I thought worth mentioning.
I have heard reports of some retailers delivering different Kingsdown mattresses from the ones they had on display in their stores. So check very carefully that you get the mattress that you ordered.
While researching this Kingsdown Body System mattress review, it has become obvious that this mattress is very similar in quality and design to the likes of the Sealy Posturpedic mattress – they make use of similar materials and technologies. If anything, what gives the Kingsdown the edge, is their use of computer technology to help their customers find the right mattress for them.
If you believe in living life king size, a 'Kingsdown mattress' is what you are looking for. This mattress is exactly what it sounds like, truly king size. This is no cheap mattress though, and is seen on the most luxurious form of beds, with huge massive side cushions to give it a pleasing look. To add to its luxurious features, it is extremely durable, in the sense that they can be used for many years to come – without any damage or fading of its quality. Kingsdown mattresses are by far the most luxurious and elegant items you can have in your bedroom.
However, if you take a close look at the price range of these mattresses, you might be disappointed to know that they fall in the more costly price bracket. A Kingsdown mattress is one of the most reputed high profile mattresses around, aiming to give you the richest and most classy look possible for your bedroom. Although there are sometimes reasonable discounts and offers on these mattresses, generally Kingsdown mattress prices are at the top end of the scale, but for your money, you get a top quality product that will serve you well for many years to come.
A Kingsdown matress has always been renowned for its use of new technologies, and this is based around the 'Body Diagnostics' adjustment process. The mattresses closely monitor the sleeping habit of a person, and it adjusts the surface of the bed to adapt to his/her sleeping positions. The intelligent working of this bed ensures that the person sleeping on it, is most comfortable and able to achieve perfect posture. One of the most important manufacturing features of the Kingsdown mattress is that they are constructed with 'Full Body Surround' and 'Cloud Cushion'. Through this, body weight is evenly distributed, thereby giving a relaxed sleep as the pressure points are relieved. Broad surface allows the best support system for our body.
If you've ever read a Kingsdown mattress review before, you'll know that they provide extreme levels of comfort to every sleeper, as they are in-built with technology which allows the bed to adjust, according to your movements while in sleep. The Body Diagnostic technology has never been seen in this type of product before, so Kingsdown mattresses have certainly made a mark in today's mattress market.
The Kingsdown mattresses reviews that are available will talk about other types of mattress with varied additional features such as the Perfect Partner, Body System and Plush Sense. Additionally, other types include Body Duet, Body Essential, Body System, Body Blend and Body Caress mattresses.
Needless to say, with such amazing technical features, taking care of our sleeping habits, buying a Kingsdown mattress is worth the investment and definitely one of the best decisions we can ever make. It is a once in a lifetime investment and the benefits seen through the use of these mattresses are numerous.
Kingsdown mattresses are one of the most popular mattresses used world wide. Initially, they were entirely hand made, and materials used to make these mattresses were all natural; horsehair was used for insulation and hard skin case.
Since the early days, things have changed dramatically, and now, Kingsdown mattresses are now entirely made of hypoallergenic materials, using the manufacturing support of advanced technology – the final finish is still done by hand though to ensure the best definition of comfort and luxury for the users. The list of luxury features doesn't end there though…….
Every Kingsdown mattress is made with allergy-free materials, and those materials of are all mildew and bacteria resistant. Thus if you a have tendency for dust allergy, or respiratory problems you can use this type of mattress safely. This type of mattress is 100% safe for all children, but especially so for those children who suffer from dermatitis, bronchial asthma and other allergy related conditions.
Kingsdown also provide adequate and healthy support for contours as well as for weight distribution, which results in quality management and reduction of sagging edges which is a regular occurrence with cheaper mattresses. Unlike a standard pocket spring mattress, Kingsdown matresses use high temper steel to make their coils, this has the effect of providing more resistance against shocks and jerks.
The Latest mattress introduced by The Kingsdown Matress Company is the Body System – this particular mattress system provides complete support for body, so that the head, ankles, hips, and spine remain in comfortable, straight position while you sleep on this mattress.
As per the Kingsdown mattress reviews that are easily found on the Internet, consumers have rated this mattress as one of the best natural sleep machines of 21st century – this acclamation is not a mere coincidence; it is the result of extensive R&D process that took place before making the mattress ready for market. The best way for you to test this out, is to visit your local store and write you own Kingsdown Mattress review based on the experience you have trying it out.
When it comes to buying a new mattress from Kingsdown, even the selection process is semi-automated for you – the selection process is run by an efficient computerized system and a machine called the Dormo Diagnostic Sleep Machine. After taking few readings of the customer, the Dormo Machine can prescribe the right Kingsdown product that should be the best option for you.
Ohhhh…….almost forgot, my original question "Are kingsdown mattresses worth the money?" – you bet they are.
The King Koil mattress brand has been with us for well over 100 years, and my first assumption is always that a company with so much history must be doing lots of things right for them to have survived so long. Additionally, you might have read a number of King Koil mattress reviews that mention the fact that a large number of 5-star hotels choose mattresses from King Koil for their bedrooms.
Over the years, King Koil has strived hard to ensure that their advances in technology have always resulted in a new mattress range that offers the customer a whole lot more than its predecessor. The company claim that they offer many high end features in their mattresses, but they claim to do that without making their customers spend money unnecessarily. They also claim to be the only mattress company to have its products endorsed by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER), although we have been unable to verify this at the time of writing.
Zoned coil spring system – King Koil Mattresses zoned coil spring system is designed to offer additional support to the areas of the body where it is most needed. The King Koil Spine Support mattress for example has a 3 zone system, while the King Koil Perfect Contour mattress has 5 zones of coils. Each coil zone is strategically placed to provide maximum support in the areas that receive the most pressure.
High quality materials – Each King Koil mattress is made from top quality materials to ensure that the mattresses have a long useful life. Their zoned coil spring systems are encased in premium foam to help prevent sagging and add stability and durability to the mattress sides.
It's difficult to find many bad King Koil mattress reviews; in fact I could only find a handful when I was writing this. The main complaint centered on an exacerbated back problem that the customer attributed to their King Koil mattress. You always need to bare in mind that, generally speaking, consumers who have a positive experience with a product DON'T write reviews for that product, so to find so few negative reviews is quite comforting.
The King Koil Mattress Company has a long pedigree of selling mattresses in the United States, and you don't survive for as long as they have if your products are shoddy. Their mattresses are suitable for all ages, from their Kool Kids range, right through to their Luxury Escapes mattress. With prices in the $600 to $3,000 range, it's unsurprising that that feature so highly in many King Koil mattress reviews.
If you have your own review of a King Koil mattress, let us know what you think and we'll do our best to give you your very own page.
The easiest way to find the latest King Koil mattress prices is to search the Internet on some of the hundreds of websites that are selling King Koil mattresses. Generally speaking you will find that your local mattress discounter won't be able to match these prices, but it will give you a good starting point, and you will be able to use it when you are negotiating a final price.
The King Koil Spine Support mattress is the most popular model in their range, so is probably the model that you are most likely to be able to negotiate a discount on. Whatever discount you might get offered however, should only be considered if you feel the Spine Support mattress is the right mattress for you – never choose a mattress based solely on the deal you get offered!
The prices of King Koil mattresses can vary widely, and the Spine Support model is no different because of the myriad of different trims that are available. The cheapest I can find at the moment is in the region of $500, which is for a Bayshore queen mattress. That price point increases to as much as $1,200 for the King Koil Jemma queen mattress.
As I said previously, you will almost certainly find the best King Koil mattress prices if you search the Internet, but I would never advice anyone to choose their new King Koil mattress that way. To find a mattress that suits both you and your partner, it is absolutely essential that you try out each mattress before you decide to consider it.
If it's a King Koil Spine Support mattress you have set your heart on, go to your local mattress store and spend some time lying on the mattress. You should aim to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes on each mattress you try, and don't just lay still, because that's not what will happen when you take it home.
Move around a little, try lying on your back and both sides, and pay particular attention to how it feels when your partner moves around. If you feel their movements easily, there is a possibility that any movement they make while they're asleep will disturb your sleep.
When you've chosen the exact model of mattress you want, that's the time to go back to the Internet and find the best King Koil mattress prices that you can get. And never forget that any mattress you buy will probably have to last you for at least 8 to 10 years so make your decision wisely. The King Koil Spine Support mattress is a good mid-range model and should serve you well.
This Sealy mattress reviews page will give you an overview of what the Sealy Mattress Company does, and also provide links to specific Sealy products such as the Sealy Posturepedic mattress, the Sealy Trueform, and their latest model the Sealy Springfree mattress. In time we will review other models as well, but in the meantime, we will concentrate on the most popular mattress models they make.
Sealy started making mattresses back in 1881 in Sealy, Texas. The original business started producing cotton filed mattresses to order, and grew quickly as the demand for quality mattresses took off. Fifteen years after it began, the company was sold, along with its many patents, to another Texas company that retained the Sealy name. Soon after the sale, an ad executive working for the company coined the slogan "sleeping on a Sealy is like sleeping on a cloud" – and with that one short sentence, a national phenomenon was born.
Sealy has been the market leader in the US for more than three decades, and while much of this success is undoubtedly down to great marketing, you don't stay on top for more than thirty years unless your product lives up to the hype.
The products quality comes as a result of the company's commitment to research & development, and also in its use of top quality materials and its innovative manufacturing techniques. The company's Posturepedic mattress for example was designed and developed in conjunction with some of the world's leading orthopaedic doctors to ensure that it provides optimum levels of back support for anyone who sleeps on it.
When it comes to materials used, Sealy claim they use only the best materials available – but you would expect them to say that wouldn't you? However, their claims do seem to hold up when you examine their products closely. This is illustrated best by the company's patented UniCased Edge design which ensures that the mattress keeps its shape even when it gets used regularly over long periods of time.
If you search online you will find negative reviews written about virtually all the leading brands of mattress. I've got to be honest with you, if you search for Sealy mattress reviews, you will find more negative reviews than you will for most other brands – there are however some very good reasons for this. If you remember, I told you that Sealy had been the leading brand in the US for more than thirty year, so given the millions of mattresses they have sold over the years; they are bound to have their fair share of disgruntled customers.
The industry magazine reviews of Sealy mattresses are generally very complimentary about the quality and durability of the Sealy mattress range. The negative online consumer reviews generally mention mattress sag as the main bone of contention, but again that is very similar to other mattresses.


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March 9, 2022 April 7, 2022 / Media
A while back my friend Jay turned me on to Old Gods of Appalachia, an eldritch horror anthology podcast set in the Appalachian mountains. Steve Shell and Cam Collins (both Virginia natives) weave the idea of ancient evils imprisoned in the mountains with the very real hardships, temptations and injustice experienced by the poor settlers, …
Old Gods of Appalachia Read More »
Amazon asking for 70% of newspaper subscription revenue?
May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009 / Media
From an interview with Jim Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, with Brooke Gladstone at On the Media:
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, you testified about your negotiations with Amazon regarding the Kindle electronic reader. Could you tell us about that?
JIM MORONEY: Somebody was bringing up the Kindle as the solution we should all be focused on. And I love the Kindle. I read books on it all the time. My problem is that after negotiating and negotiating and negotiating, the very best deal we could get from Amazon was to split revenues for whatever price we decided to charge. We could get 30 percent of that money. They get 70 percent.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Wow.
JIM MORONEY: I could have probably lived with that, but there was another clause in there that they would not give me relief on, and that said that they have the right to relicense my content to any portable device, not just an Amazon-owned device, any portable device. In essence, I was giving them a complete licensing agreement for nothing for all of my content, period.
I'm sort of – that's – give away my future, you know.
If Amazon came back – I thought maybe they'd call today – and said, do you know what, we'll give up on that little clause about the relicensing of your IP, I would have said, okay, you know what – I'll try this thing at 70/30 and see if it works. But nobody called today, as far as I can tell.
Compare that to Apple, who keeps about 35% to 40% of the price of the 99-cent purchase price for a song sold on iTunes. Of course, Apple's main business model is selling iPods while Amazon's main business model is selling content, but even so I'm surprised Amazon is demanding such a high percentage for what still amounts to an untested market. Maybe they figure (probably correctly) that newspapers are desperate enough to go for it?
iPhone non-review in SJ Merc
June 19, 2007 June 19, 2007 / Media
I can sympathize with all the reporters who have to wait like the rest of us to see the Apple's new iPhone (due out June 29th), but shouldn't a review that starts with "I haven't come closer than a hundred feet to an iPhone…" just stop right there?
Want some candy, little boy?
April 3, 2007 April 3, 2007 / Media
Researchers at Kaiser have concluded that more than half the TV ads kids watch are for candy, snacks or fast food, totaling to about 50 hours of ads for junk food per year. (Via Fairyshaman)
New York Times holding out for a "simple" civil war?
October 2, 2006 October 2, 2006 / Media
In an interview with NPR's On The Media, New York Times Deputy Foreign Editor Ethan Bronner had this to say about what it would take for the Times to decide that Iraq has finally turned into a civil war (question is 3:10 into the interview):
I don't think I could answer that you know, sort of, we need to see X, Y and Z. I think that broadly speaking if it seemed that the sides of conflict in Iraq had separated themselves into full-blown millitias / armies and war was the full-time occupation in Iraq, that would be a civil war and I imagine that's when we would start calling it that.
At a certain point it will, if in fact it grows to the point where the sides have divided into clearly defined groups fighting one another, I mean the government for example is a mix of Sunni, Shia and Kurd. Is it a player in this "civil war" that other people see? It's not clear to me.
I wonder how the Times reconciles this whole Blue vs. Grey definition of civil war with the fact that wars are increasingly being fought by networks of loosely-affiliated like-minded allies rather than clearly defined armies. If they can accept that the US is at war with a "transnational movement of extremist organizations, networks, and individuals" (to quote a recent Defense Department publication) why insist on clearly-defined armies in the case of a civil war? If anything, civil wars have historically been messier and more complicated than other wars, not simpler.
If the Times is waiting for the situation in Iraq to congeal into a simple pie chart before they decide it's in a state of civil war, I expect they'll be waiting quite a while.
Headline in today's Wall Street Journal: Tumbling Markets May Be Reflection Of Strong Growth
Bob Garfield on Stephen Colbert
May 6, 2006 May 6, 2006 / Media
Speaking of On The Media, Bob Garfield has an interesting take on Stephen Colbert's somewhat chilly (or at least uneven) audience reaction at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner:
The question shouldn't be "Why was Stephen Colbert so rude?" The question should be, "Why is the press gathering to toast a sitting politician in the first place, socializing with the government officials they're supposed to be covering?" How cna you sit there in your formal wear over boeuf and cabernet and maintain an arms-length distance from the person less than an arms-length away from you? The problem with the White House Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday was not the Master of Ceremonies it was the ceremony itself. Democracy requires a vigilant press. It doesn't much need the Friar's Club.
Health News Review
This week's On The Media has a piece on the new website www.healthnewsreview.org, a non-profit site launched last month that rates health news on criteria such as whether the story discusses cost, efficiency and potential harms of treatments, compares to alternative treatments, reveal sources of their information, etc. Ratings are performed by a review board of doctors and other health experts.
and a cow
February 14, 2006 February 14, 2006 / Media
I turned on BBC radio yesterday just in time to hear the newscaster say "and a purebred Guernsey cow. Now on to sports…" I caught the reference, but at the time had no idea what he was talking about…
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me as podcast
I'm a week late on this news, but I see that NPR has finally started releasing Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me as a podcast, so I don't have to stream it anymore like I've been doing the past year. (They've also started podcasting This I Believe and The Unger Report, among others, and of course On The Media has been podcast for ages.)


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Fundraising 2010/Report
< Fundraising 2010
1.1 Key facts
1.1.1 Comparison between 2009 and 2010
1.1.2 Top countries donating directly to WMF
1.1.3 Top five fundraising days
1.1.4 Most common gift amounts
1.1.5 Daily fundraiser metrics (online donations only)
1.1.5.1 How donations work
2 Chapters' fundraising
2.1 Chapter Feedback
3 Community Involvement
4 Testing
4.1 Banners
4.3 Landing Pages
4.4 Testing Methodology and Reports
6 Recurring
7 Fundraising Updates
8 Tech
8.2 Projects Completed
8.3 Agile Project Management
9 Media Coverage
10.1 Editor Feedback
10.2 OTRS Responses
10.3 Donor Stories
10.4 Community Feedback
10.4.1 Banners & Jimmy
10.4.2 Communication & Media
10.4.3 Testing & Messaging
12 Additional Information
Daily donations
The 2010 WMF Fundraiser was the shortest and most successful campaign to date, raising more than US$16 million.
Over a period of 50 days, more than 500,000 people from 150 countries donated directly to the Wikimedia Foundation, and nearly 200,000 people donated directly to 12 local chapters. During the 2010 Fundraiser, the Foundation received its millionth donation. Our messages were shown across Wikimedia projects localized into more than 80 languages. Wikimedia community members worked together to run an efficient campaign based on constant testing and optimization of different fundraising themes, messages, images, and designs. Donors also showed their support by sending in thousands of Wikipedia stories.
There is still plenty of room for improvement in future fundraisers: we did not provide as much support to the chapters as we wanted; we plan to work more closely with the chapters and to provide them with the resources and regular data they need to conduct quality testing. In the future, we need to provide more informative and regular campaign updates so people can easily follow the progression of the fundraiser.
Key factsEdit
All amounts are in US dollars and include donations from November 1, 2010 to January 31, 2011.
Comparison between 2009 and 2010Edit
# of donations 243,688 527,583
Total amount $8,691,995 $15,026,289
Average donation $35.67 $28.48
Number of fundraising days 67 50
Best day (# of donations; total $) 2009-12-16 (13,210; $440,455) 2010-12-31 (26,106; $778,454)
$1K+ donations (# of donations; total $; av. per donor) 280; $877,923; $3,135 429; $1,179,069; $2,748
The total amount raised includes neither funds to be shared from the chapters nor money raised from pre-campaign testing.
These metrics include donations from November 1, 2010 to January 31, 2011, and from November 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010
Top countries donating directly to WMFEdit
Proportion of donations from the top ten donor countries
Proportions of donation amounts from the top ten donor countries
2010 saw a dramatic increase in number of donations and the amount raised in many countries from 2009. We localized donation forms by having the local currency appear by default, adjusting the suggested giving amount based on location, and translating the form into more languages than was done in previous fundraisers. In future campaigns, we want to improve and expand these practices to optimize the forms for more countries.
United States 328,939 $10,041,643 $30.53
Canada 35,401 $896,483 $25.32
Japan 15,038 $489,696 $32.56
Spain 14,011 $323,422 $23.08
India 10,476 $193,485 $18.47
United Kingdom 9,098 $207,159 $22.77
Brazil 7,561 $157,258 $20.80
Belgium 5,514 $161,927 $29.37
Poland 4,694 $60,651 $12.92
Denmark 4,497 $104,566 $23.25
Other 84,757 $2,049,152 $24.17
Top five fundraising daysEdit
2010-12-31 26,106 $778,454 $29.82
Most common gift amountsEdit
Breakdown of frequency of top ten donor amounts.
The average donation decreased about $7 from 2009. With more people donating this year, however, the total amount raised was much higher. We extensively tested many different donation forms with different suggested amounts and saw that changing the amounts had an effect on how much people gave.
Number of donations
$20 158,042
$5 60,381
$10 48,135
$100 20,762
$1.00 16,926
$19.00 16,257
$15.00 9,728
Daily fundraiser metrics (online donations only)Edit
Daily click and conversion rates for the 2010 Fundraiser. Banner conversion rates are increased by a factor of 100.
How donations workEdit
The donation pipeline is a multi-step process that begins with a banner "impression" viewed at the top of the page hosted on Wikimedia projects. If the banner is clicked, the visitor is directed to the landing page that includes an appeal message and a space to donate by credit card or PayPal.
From this process, banner click rates are the proportion of visitors who click on banners – which directs to a landing page – after viewing a project page where the banner is displayed. Donation rates indicate the proportion of banner impressions (landing-page views) that result in a donation. Trends depicting the banner click rate and donation conversion rates are plotted in the figure. The table containing the raw form of these results, including total donations for each day of the fundraiser, is here.
On December 20, 2010 we decided to turn off banners for logged-in users, because it appeared that logged in users had already donated towards the beginning of the campaign. This was the first year fundraising banners were disabled for users to minimize disruption.
Additional facts
Number of check donations: 6,680, up from 2,780 in 2009
Number of matching gift donations (as of April 25, 2011): 550
Amount received from matching gift donations (as of April 25, 2011): $95,000
OTRS tickets closed: 8,136
Chapters' fundraisingEdit
Wikimedia chapters are independent non-profit organizations founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified geographical region. Like the Wikimedia Foundation, they aim to "empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally". Thirty chapters currently exist in nearly every continent of the world and 12 of these chapters raised funds in their countries during the 2010 fundraiser.
WMF directs potential donors (i.e. visitors who click on fundraising banners) to payment-accepting chapters' fundraising websites by using IP address geographic lookup. To accept payments, chapters agree to a standard fundraising agreement. Payment-accepting chapters observe certain practices governing fundraising, donor privacy, and reporting; and share revenues with WMF while supporting the global mission of Wikimedia.
Amount received
Amount retained
Staff (in 2010)
Tax-deductible
Austria 2,868 $97,102.55
Australia 9,088 $343,516.97 AUD$182,050.63 0 No
Switzerland 2,311 $325,504.50 Yes
Germany 73,000 $3,026,802.00 Yes
France 12,197 $650,915.19 Yes
Hungary 1,321 $27,432.94 0 Yes
Israel 2,736 $80,021.16
Italy 22,047 $425,842.59 $232,735.69 as of 2011-12-29; i.e. 150,594.17 € given; complex taxation problems) 0 Yes
Netherlands 8,913 $428,718.49 0 Yes (granted retroactively in jan 2011)
Russia 20,879 $118,053.31
Sweden 1,937 $43,717.92 No
United Kingdom 32,329 $923,559.009 All; a £290k (~$500k) grant was given to WMF 1[1] Applied for
Note: Some numbers are provisional
Chapter FeedbackEdit
Several chapters wrote reports and lessons learned based on their experiences in the 2010 fundraiser.
Wikimedia Australia
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/File:Fundraising Report.pdf
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising 2010/WMDE Lessons Learned
Wikimedia Israel
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising 2010/Amir's thoughts
Wikimedia Nederland
http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Evaluatie Fondsenwerving 2010-2011
Community InvolvementEdit
Early in the pre-campaign preparations, the Foundation asked members of the Wikimedia community to get deeply involved in the fundraising process. Community members responded by proposing hundreds of banner messages, translating messages, and helping with weekly testing. We were searching for a message that could perform better than the personal appeal from Jimmy Wales. During months of testing, we put a lot of effort into finding a message that could beat Jimmy and tested hundreds of ideas. While we weren't able to find that message, we still gained valuable information about what kinds of messages are not effective and learned we should focus on personal appeals. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time and energy to suggest and test messages. These weekly tests leading up to the launch of the fundraiser were really crucial for a successful campaign. Not only did early testing help us develop quality material for a strong push right at the start, but it also ensured our functional processes were in place and that we were ready for the workload during the campaign.
We were committed to working with community members to create "the fundraiser you can edit." During the fundraiser, Wikipedia editors actually wrote their own appeals and appeared on banners. The editors worked with Foundation staff to incorporate successful elements from Jimmy's appeal into their own stories. The involvement from community volunteers was really instrumental at this phase in the campaign and we received incredibly positive feedback from readers, donors, volunteers, chapter representatives, and WMF staff.
Wikimedia community members translated our fundraising messages into more than 80 languages, more than any previous fundraiser. 2010 was the first fundraiser when half of those languages had localized versions of the appeal letter on their projects. Volunteers worked throughout the entire campaign; translating messages from Jimmy, editors, and Sue, so that these appeals could reach people all over the world in their own language. The translators were critical in not only translating messages, but also really localizing the messages in a way that would be meaningful and relevant in each different language.
After we reached our fundraising goal on the last day of 2010, we moved onto to the the phase of the campaign aimed at recruiting new editors and publicizing the more than 400 events celebrating Wikipedia's 10th Anniversary. The Contribution Team, staff, and volunteers collaborated on ways to encourage new editors from banner messages that led to informative and instructive landing pages. The Contribution Team is still currently working to increase the number of editors and to improve overall contributions to the project. We're looking forward to working with members of our community even more on incorporating a strong contributor campaign into the next fundraiser.
TestingEdit
Our $16 million goal for the 2010 fundraiser was double our target from the year before. Going into the 2010 campaign, we knew that in order to raise twice as much money as the year before, we had to launch with our very best-performing material to take full advantage of the momentum and attention that our campaign would receive when we launched. Even though we didn't officially launch until about halfway through November, we started weekly testing of banners and landing pages early in August. This early testing period was crucial to optimize our designs, messages, and work processes to ensure a strong start.
The Wikimedia fundraising campaign is based on constant testing and optimization of different themes, messages, images, and donation form designs -- mostly communicated through banners placed at the top of Wikipedia pages. Only a small portion of users donate so we must always be improving our methods.
BannersEdit
Banner performance throughout a single day. Top banners all included an image while the bottom two banners were text only. All banners displayed the exact same text.
Banners are the first step in capturing people's attention. We had to balance capturing people's attention with ensuring that we were capturing the right kind of attention. It was really important to get people to click on our banners, but we also needed to attract people who actually have an interest in supporting Wikimedia. These "productive clicks" actually lead to donations.
During the pre-campaign testing period, we started with text-only banners but saw that graphical banners outperformed text-only by about 50%. From the 2009 fundraiser, we knew that the personal appeal from our founder, Jimmy Wales, was our best-performing material. In the months leading up to the fundraiser, we tested a wide variety of the hundreds of banner messages submitted by community members but ultimately found that launching with Jimmy would give us the big boost from the beginning that we knew we needed.
Variety of text only banners tested.
In the 2009 fundraiser, we waited until more than halfway through the campaign to introduce the Jimmy banner which reads, "Please read: A Personal Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales." We were concerned about "Jimmy Fatigue". We certainly didn't expect Jimmy's message to perform at the same levels throughout the entire campaign. It was unknown how long Jimmy's appeal would serve as a compelling message, but from the pre-campaign testing we knew that we wanted to launch with Jimmy for a strong start.
In the beginning of the campaign, we tested a wide variety of different graphical treatments of the Jimmy Appeal banner with a range of colors, photos, text styles, photo placement, "Read now" button designs, etc. Ultimately, we ended up running the simple white banner with the plain button for the majority of the campaign instead of the more heavily stylized banners. During this early campaign testing period, we also learned that people need a call to action in the banners. We saw that putting a donate button on a banner hurt click-rates, but a "Read now" button (a suggestion from the community) actually increased click-rates.
Sample of Jimmy banners tested.
After about three weeks, we saw the number of donations start to decrease and it was time to move to the next phase of the campaign. We took down Jimmy banners and transitioned to banners featuring Wikipedia editors. Editors from around the world wrote about their own experiences with Wikipedia and asked readers to donate. Overall, the editor banners received similar click-rates as the Jimmy banner, but about half the donation-rate. The editor appeals were a really critical part of the campaign and WMF received very positive feedback from highlighting the editors' stories. The editors also gave Jimmy a much-needed break, so that during a later phase of the campaign he could effectively come back with a more urgent ask.
Sample of Editor banners tested.
Nearly a month into the fundraiser, our Executive Director, Sue Gardner, wrote an appeal. Similar to the editors', Sue's banner had a click-rate comparable to the Jimmy banner, but the donation rate was in between the editors and Jimmy. During this time, we introduced banners with progress meters measuring how much money we had raised and how much was left to go, but they did not improve banner click-rates at this stage in the fundraiser.
Sample of Sue banners tested.
With three weeks left to go in 2010, we reintroduced the Jimmy banner with a more urgent message and saw a boost in donations. With these banners, the progress meter did improve click-rates. Near the end of the year, we tested numerous year-end messages that emphasized tax-deductibility of donations to WMF in the United States.
Throughout the campaign, our strongest banner message was, "Please Read: An Urgent Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales." In the last few days of the year we were able to find banner text that performed better than Jimmy's appeal banner. We saw two messages in particular that were performing well: "Only 4 days left in 2010 to make a tax-deductible contribution to keep Wikipedia free. Please help Wikipedia pay its bills in 2011." and "If everyone reading this donated $5 our fundraiser would end today. Please donate to keep Wikipedia free."
While each of these messages was performing well on its own, we wanted to put both of these messages into one banner. We introduced an animated banner that rotated between these two messages. At the time of the test, we thought that the rotating banner performed about 20% better than the static banner. In the post-campaign analysis, we think we might have made an error during the fundraiser and it won by less. We'll have to test this again to get more data.
We learned that we could dramatically decrease the average donation by displaying the banner with the message,"If everyone reading this donated $5 our fundraiser would end today. Please donate to keep Wikipedia free." Even though the average donation amount was much lower when we showed this banner, it brought in a much higher total. This banner may have motivated people who responded to the year-end excitement and urgency.
We were able to end the fundraiser on the last day of 2010 with our most successful single day in Wikimedia fundraising, bringing in more than USD $770,000 (the previous year's record of roughly $440,000 was actually broken four times during this fundraiser).
Sample of Year-end banners tested.
Banner Lessons
Graphic banners perform better.
Banners do not need to be heavily stylized to be effective.
Include a call to action ("Read now"/"Please help" button).
Progress meters are effective at certain stages in campaign - later when closer to goal.
"Jimmy appeal" message was unbeatable until urgent year-end messages.
Keep testing until the very end. We found effective year-end banner messages in the very last days of the campaign.
For more detailed analysis of testing, please see the "Testing Methodology and Reports" section.
AppealsEdit
While always maintaining the values and integrity of the Wikimedia movement, we also used past donor research to guide our fundraising messaging. From this past research, we learned that a significant amount of people are not aware that Wikipedia is supported by a non-profit or that it's funded by user donations. People also see Wikipedia as a practical tool they use everyday and are less compelled by messages that focus primarily on mission.
During the beginning Jimmy launch phase, the most successful appeal had the first line "I got a lot of funny looks ten years ago when I started talking to people about Wikipedia."
In the editor phase of the campaign, we tested variations on appeals written by Kartika, Goma, lilaroja, Abbas, Victoria, Sage, and Liam. Overall, the editor appeals had similar banner click-rates but about half the donation-rate as Jimmy's appeal.
After the editor phase, we ran Sue's appeal for about five days which performed between the editors and Jimmy.
With just a couple of weeks left in 2010, Jimmy returned with a more urgent ask. While on a flight to Russia, he wrote an appeal that included a phrase describing Wikipedia as a:"temple for the mind" which performed very well and received many comments from donors. In this letter, Jimmy told users that he's a volunteer and beautifully described Wikipedia as being like "a library or a public park." These elements were powerful messages to motivate readers to give.
On the very last day of 2010, the "This is it. 6 hours left." appeal proved to be a strong message to end the campaign.
Appeals lessons
Opening line is key. It must be straightforward and compelling.
People really read the appeals. Text changes in the 5th paragraph affect performance.
Include a clear and direct ask for donations.
Tell people where the money goes, be specific and concrete.
No nonsense, no gimmicks.
Tell a story to clarify people's understanding of Wikipedia and that it needs them to keep the story going.
No ads. No agenda. No strings attached. - People respond to messages that emphasize that Wikipedia is free to use and ad-free.
Year-end appeals that highlighted the urgency of time and how close we were to reaching our goal were effective messages in the last days of the year.
Jimmy's unique voice really resonates with readers.
Landing PagesEdit
There were many changes to the donation form from 2009 to 2010 based on results from weekly pre-campaign testing. The main goal was to simplify the giving process in order to remove barriers to conversion.
Landing page lessons
Minimize checkboxes and links.
Move the appeal text higher up in the form.
Include an animated progress meter when more than halfway to goal.
Use ascending ask-string radio buttons.
7 radio button options performed better than 4 (in the US).
Include a box highlighting "Where your donation goes."
Smaller grey donate buttons performed better than larger blue buttons.
2009 Donation Form
The form without the field for donors to leave a comment performed better than the form asking for donor comments. We'd like to find a way to bring the comments section back, possibly at a later stage in the donation process, without significantly lowering donations.
Please see the "Testing Methodology and Reports" section for more detailed analysis on specific tests.
Testing Methodology and ReportsEdit
The campaign is based on constant testing and optimization of different themes, messages, images, and donation form designs. Please see the testing methodology and reports pages for an explanation of the testing and analysis process.
Throughout the fundraiser, we ran several banner and landing page tests a day. Below is the analysis on a very small sample of the hundreds of tests we conducted.
Banner Test: Hands VS Jimmy
Banner Test: Jimmy Face VS Jimmy Arms Crossed
Landing Page Test: "Where Your Donation Goes Info" Info Box
Banner Test: Static VS Fader
Landing Page Test: "Where Your Donation Goes" Pie Chart
Landing Page Test: Ask String Compare
Banner Test: Banner Message Compare
Banner Test: Animated Banner
Banner Test: Progress Meter
Banner Test: Border / No Border Compare
Banner Test: Jimmy VS Sue
EmailEdit
Over the campaign, WMF sent two different email messages to contacts in the donor database. The first email was a message from Jimmy to kick off the fundraiser. This message was intended to gather support from past donors as well as to invite our supporters to give us their feedback on our fundraising message. The email was sent November 22-23, 2010 to all contacts who had given in past years, but who had not yet given in the 2010 fundraiser.
The second email was a message offering the option to make a monthly recurring donation. This email was sent December 15-16, 2010 to both past donors and 2010 donors. Emails sent to 2010 donors included a thank-you message and minor copy changes to reflect that they had already given this year.
Emails sent
Emails Delivered
% Bounce
Average Amount
Donations per email
$ per email
$ per open
$ per click
Email 1 213,224 194,642 8.71% 919 10,693 $303,976.89 $28.43 .055 $1.56 $5.86 $27.66
Email 2 472,147 454,024 3.84% 6,621 7,109 $599,534.39 $84.33 .016 $1.32 $4.98 $24.17
Note: Amounts are in USD
RecurringEdit
In response to many requests from the community, we introduced recurring giving as a donation option from December 11, 2010 through the end of the campaign. We sent out an email to past donors, and supporters who had asked for a recurring option in the past, and announced it on the Foundation and Fundraising mailing lists.
With monthly recurring giving, a donor selects the amount they wish to give, and the payment is made automatically each month, for 12 months.
Recurring donations are processed through PayPal, and therefore are limited to currencies PayPal accepts.
Donors can use either their PayPal account or a credit card to sign up for recurring.
2010 Recurring Announcement email: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-December/063131.html
Recurring giving brought in about USD 700K in the 20 days during which it was offered (this assumes an average of ten monthly payments).
We emailed 454,024 people with the option to donate monthly, raising about USD 400,000 from 1,645 donors.
Recurring Testing
We tested the recurring option on several different recurring forms, including radio buttons, gray payment buttons, as well as including it on our "ways to give" page. Testing showed that including the option on the donation form actually resulted in fewer transactions. We removed the recurring giving button from the donation form but kept it as an option under "ways to give."
Type of Donation Radio Buttons
Gray Payment Button
Monthly Giving Only Form
PayPal Recurring Information
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_admin_recurringpayments&bn_r=o
Fundraising UpdatesEdit
WMF reported test findings and other fundraiser highlights through "Updates" on the fundraising meta pages. The updates were designed to explain what we were testing and why, the significance of the findings, and to share numbers from our data-driven campaign. In addition to the updates on meta, we also distributed several updates to mailing lists and posts on the Foundation's main blog.
Best practices and content for Meta updates
We aimed for a minimum of two updates per week along with a weekly review post on Fridays. At the least, two of these weekly updates were dedicated to the testing process.
The 'week in review' post each Friday served as a recap of the week's banner and landing page testing – and a preview for what to expect in the following week.
In addition to sharing what we had learned through testing, we also reported on the progress of the campaign in general, chapter updates, media coverage, donor stories and feedback.
We tried to ensure that the testing page was updated along with the written updates so that there were numbers to illustrate what we were reporting.
Suggestions for next year
In future fundraisers, we want to expand our dialogue with a larger audience by reporting updates on a daily blog.
We want to incorporate more regular updates from every chapter involved with the fundraiser.
TechEdit
The 2010 Fundraiser brought all new requirements and challenges to the WMF Engineering team. With a large and ambitious goal set forth we decided to shift the existing fundraising team of one in house developer (Tomasz Finc) plus a contracting house to an EPM (Tomasz) and two dedicated developers (Arthur Richards and Ryan Kaldari). This was not only due to the large amount of projects requested but also because of the recommendations made after the 2009 fundraiser.
TeamEdit
Tomasz acted as the manager, scrum master, operations support, tech lead, and deployment engineer. Arthur Richards and Ryan Kaldari joined us in the summer of 2009, bringing the team total to three. Arthur took responsibility for back end development and Kaldari worked on the front end. Through their early projects of revamping central notice, fraud fighting, and cleaning up donor databases, everyone quickly came up to speed on the existing fundraising platform and how to best work together. As the fundraiser development accelerated, the engineering group began including Zack, Philippe, and Megan from the Community Department into the daily fundraising development scrums. By working directly with our customers, we were able to finish more projects in a shorter amount of time than ever before.
Projects CompletedEdit
Here is a small amount of the projects that we completed:
Advanced fraud filtering beyond what PayPal offered
Dynamic donation forms
Single step donation forms
Optimized our payment pipelines
Newly re-architected donation cluster allowing us to scale horizontally
Full redesign of central notice banner system
Geo targeting of banners
Simpler interface
Faster banner creation
Streamlined back end
Chapter control over landing pages
CiviCRM upgrades
Fully re-written donation queue system
Remote log analysis for identifying fraud
Streamlined analytics pipelines
Helped to support training of non engineering developers
... and many more
Agile Project ManagementEdit
We wouldn't have been able to keep up with all of these feature requests if it wasn't for adjusting the project management structure away from waterfall-like development seen at the WMF to an agile approach. The fundraiser brings all sorts of uncertainties and in order to respond to these uncertainties, we had to approach it in a very agile and iterative fashion. Through daily SCRUM's and keeping our clients close, we worked together to respond to changing requirements while maintaining a sane work load. We kept an up to date list of our backlog on meta and used this on a daily basis to organize our work, prioritize incoming requests, and keep our clients informed. We did timely code review, qa, and deployment while balancing responsiveness of project delivery. This was one of the first projects at the WMF that adopted a lot of the agile project practices and got to reap the benefits.
We've subsequently passed on a lot of our stories to other teams from our lesson learned.
One of the toughest challenges that we faced was to balance ease of changes for quick testing while maintaining strict security requirements to safeguard our donors' privacy. In order to maintain our security, we paid close attention to how our servers were configured and who had access to which elements. We limited access where necessary and imposed stringent fraud detecting features to lessen our exposure to bad transactions. This ensured that our donor data was protected from unauthorized access. We also developed new methods for quick content creation, reliability and deliverability.
In order to assess our progress, we made use of a check-in mid-fundraiser and another at the end of the fundraiser. This allowed us to connect directly with members of the fundraising team to asses our progress and course correct as necessary.
Media CoverageEdit
The 2010 Fundraiser received various forms of media attention throughout the different stages of the campaign ranging from news articles, blogs, and video.
Philanthropy - Wikipedia Puts New Fund-Raising Model to the Test
Huffington Post - Wikipedia Fundraising Begins: $16 Million Needed To Stay Free
Liberate Media - Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and the True Value of Socially Created Knowledge
Read Write Web - Wikipedia Has Raised in a Week What Took a Month in 2009
Read Write Web - Wikipedia: We Need 16 Million to Stay Free
Information is Beautiful - The Science Behind Wikipedia's Jimmy Appeal
Franco J Torres - Why I donated to Wikipedia
Pocket Lint - Wikipedia Appeals for your Donations
Financial Post - Wikimedia Launches Annual Fundraising Campaign
Hi Tech - У "Википедии" опять кончились деньги. Основатель проекта просит помощи
IDG - Wikimedia Foundations vd: "Det här gör vi med dina pengar"
New Comm Biz - Why I Finally Donated to Wikipedia
Seth Godin – Who Owns Wikipedia?
Swims With Fishes - Wikipedia: Why You Should Care
The Express Tribune - Can you imagine a world without Wikipedia?
Washington Post - What is Wikipedia Worth?
Amir Hafizi - Wikipedia Needs You(r Money)
Vondell Swain - Project for Awesome 2010: The Wikimedia Foundation (Video)
Tech Crunch - Wikipedia Still $1M Short Of Fundraising Goal For 2010 (And Why I Donated)
Device Magazine - Donate a Million Dollars on New Year's Eve 2011: Will Wikipedia reach $16 million goal before the New Year comes in?
Jess3 Blog - Why Wikipedia is Like Care Bear Stare
Read Write Web - Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free
CNET - Wikipedia's Happy New Year: $16 million in support
CBS News - Wikipedia Raises $16M to Remain Ad-Free
Huffington Post - Wikipedia Fundraiser Reaches $16 Million Goal In Record Time
International Business Times - Wikipedia stays ad-free; turns 10 on Jan. 15
PC Mag - Wikipedia Raises $16M in Site's Shortest Fundraiser Yet
Geekosystem - Wikimedia Reaches Its Fundraiser Goals; No More Giant Jimmy Wales Banners?
The Atlantic - Wikipedia Raises $16 Million, Stops Asking for Donations
FeedbackEdit
Editor FeedbackEdit
From Mayo Fuster (lilaroja):
" Many many people contacted me, like 1000 people wrote me. I was a bit overwhelmed. People contacted me from around the world, the more rare places. They were mostly people with positive reactions, like sending nice notes because they enjoyed the letter (i.e.: "Your comments of Wikipedia is fabulous") or just saying how important is Wikipedia for them and the gratitude they feel to Wikipedia. I found curious that some of them were couples or families. For example, saying "I was with my wife and we read your letter and decided to donate"; somehow like if my letter would inspire a family reaction or something which have to do with the family giving (An hypothesis could be: Parents use to buy the Encyclopedia for their kids to have at home, so I guess now Wikipedia plays that role and this recall something in parents mind). Then, a group of reactions were from men wanted to "flirt" with me (I.e. asking questions such as "are you married"). Then a very small proportion, perhaps 5 messages, were very nasty messages, like racist (i.e. against Spanish people), which I totally ignored. Of course, friends of mind also recognized me and wrote me to say "I saw you", too, but on this it is surprising the very big proportion of messages from people who don't know me at all, in contrast to the very few messages from people who actually knows me. In sum, all in all, it was a nice and curious experience.
Then, beyond the personal experience, as a researcher (I work as social researcher) the experience further convinces me that to explore the Wikipedia community (community here understood in a very big sense) though the feelings that attach people to Wikipedia would tell us a lot. That is, I think that to research the emotional dimension of Wikipedia would bring some knowledge about it which does not emerge from the more conventional research methods and questions.
From Sage Ross:
" Being on that banner was one of the coolest things ever; I was excited and honored to be part of the fundraiser like that. Friends told me they donated when they saw it; out-of-contact old friends got in touch to tell me they saw me on Wikipedia. It was especially cool because I felt like I was participating in the fundraiser as an outsider, as someone putting on my volunteer hat, putting together the banner and appeal while I was off work... and having no better window into how decisions were getting made and plans implemented than anyone else hanging out in the fundraising IRC channel. With everything that was going on–all the different dimensions–I think the fundraiser was more fun for the community this year than any past years. I'm really looking forward to an even more community-driven fundraiser next year. "
OTRS ResponsesEdit
This section is based on messages sent to problemsdonating
wikimedia.org (which was an email address added to the donation form that requested feedback on the donations process) as well as general trends seen in OTRS during and after the fundraiser.
What do donors want? Top requests/complaints
More local bank options; especially for Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, Venezuela, and many African countries.
SMS donation option for non-US donors.
Japanese JCB credit cards donation option.
More options for recurring donations that don't use PayPal.
Donors want merchandise like mugs, globes, stickers, bags and shirts.
People were frustrated that their local currencies weren't an option, particularly Brazilian Reis and Indian Rupees.
In several countries, donors requested that we register for charitable status for tax purposes.
There is strong interest in WMF participating in the Combined Federal Campaign.
Donors requested the option to make donations in honor or memory of someone.
Donations as part of a Christmas gift or birthday present.
Frustrations with technology/bug issues
Hundreds of people had the page time out and as a result had a duplicate donation processed.
Some donors wanted banners to be turned off after making a donation. Others wrote in saying they enjoyed watching the progress of the campaign, even after donating.
Banner loading occurred after page loaded. This caused "ghost clicking" which frustrated some users who did not intend to click on the banner.
Donors wanted the credit card security number not to be shown when typed and instead suggested that **** replace numbers when typed.
Donor StoriesEdit
Below are just a few of the (roughly 100,000!) amazing stories that our users shared with us. We thank them for their willingness to tell their story about Wikipedia. You can find more stories here.
" I have a rare chronic disease, Sheehan's Syndrome. Since, most doctors never have had a Sheehan's patient I have used your web site information to obtain additional information. Most doctors have read a one line statement in same outdated medical book about Sheehan's Syndrome. And, of course these out dated medical books all state that with replacement medication a Sheehan's individual can lead a, "Normal Life". I belong to an incredible Sheehan's online group and none of us have yet to find a Sheehan's Syndrome person that leads a normal life.
Unfortunately, there is not a sufficient amount of research or information on my disease. I sincerely appreciate Wikipedia's efforts and maintain such a wonderful informative web site.
" I am an 81 year old Professor Emeritus who was trained in History but researched and taught in several social, economic and design "disciplines". Fifty-five years ago, for money, I wrote sections for encyclopedias in the UK, so I appreciate and celebrate the differences between that world of knowledge and Wikipedia. The difference I prize the most is the smooth way in which the reader is encouraged to widen and/or deepen her/his knowledge of the chosen topic. "
" I was extremely ignorant when I stumbled upon Wikipedia nearly five years ago. I had read about a "free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit or contribute to," and was extremely skeptical. I figured it was worth a look, but knew it probably would never have the exact information I needed.
Boy, was I wrong.
Now, Wikipedia isn't perfect. It is a prime target for vandals and charlatans who love spreading misinformation. But it also has a crack community of experts and people who do their homework in order to keep this treasure trove of information as accurate as possible.
Wikipedia has been my salvation. I am far more intelligent because of Wikipedia. I am far more aware of this world, this universe, and how everything ties together because of Wikipedia. Whenever I hit a stumbling block in my writing, whenever I come across a new word or concept I have never heard of, I run to Wikipedia. And 99.9 percent of the time, I find what I am looking for. Wikipedia truly is a special place, and I hope it remains exactly how it is for generations to come.
As for me, I will be a Wikipedian until the day I pass from this world and into the next.
Community FeedbackEdit
We made a public request for feedback about what we did well this year, and what we should strive to improve on for next year. Here is a summary of comments from talk pages, mailing lists, and many conversations. It is by no means conclusive, and should be evolving. Please add your feedback about the campaign so we can improve future Wikimedia fundraisers.
Banners & JimmyEdit
Mixing up the banners between the 'hard money' Jimbo asks and the softer/brighter/warmer editor appeals was a great way to stagger the intensity.
Avoid Jimmy, if possible. If we are able to do it without him, that would be much better. Consider self-reference to mitigate backlash ("me again", "make me go away", "I don't want to be here either"...)
People will tolerate banners, but they get tired of them over time. We might want to publicize that registering an account allows getting rid of them permanently, or even give an in-between option to IPs.
I think that the underswell of irritation about the banners should caution against significantly expanding either the duration or the invasiveness. It's one thing to use banners, then banners with images, then bigger banners, then banners with moving graphics, then banners with moving graphics that fade into other banners... just be cautious that the increased effectiveness is not always free, and the more intense the ads eventually the bigger the backlash will be.
We tend to take kindly to the 'great man' theory of history. It rewards our feelings of individualism, independence, the ability to craft our own destinies, the strength of fathers, the triumph of will over the bubbling masses -- but Wikipedia is a gallant rebuttal to that whole meme. Wikipedia is the 'great community' theory of history, and yet, our product is still represented by the single face of a single person. There's some inherent positive effect from having an identifiable face, a pseudo-celebrity represent the foundation, but it also misses out on the big picture of what this community is about. I founded Us. Does it work?
Advertising is Advertising: Jimmy Wales should not appear in the banner.
Avoid putting the Wikipedia logo on other sites.
Communication & MediaEdit
We need a quick and I think more prominent answer to two questions: 1) Where is this money going? (servers, staff, expenses, expansion, outreach, upgrades, innovation); and 2) Why not ad-sense? (independence, community, reader experience). These answers are out there, but I don't think readers should have to dig to get them.
The 5-year plan, strategic planning documents, global south, new interface, new hires... all of that stuff needs communication. Average readers see English Wikipedia, and only English Wikipedia, and they just know that they don't want it to disappear. But they don't know anything else about the scope, scale, or future of the project. That kind of simplicity is sometimes OK, but it can also create a disconnect between the perceived costs (moderate, and stable) and the actual costs (substantial, and growing). I feel like we're missing a small but important opportunity to educate people about the bigger picture in which Wikipedia is a part. Most readers don't want to know 'too much', but we could make it a little easier to peek through that crack.
More frequent blog posts in the early phases, followed by announcements on all mailing lists. The testing stat page was public, which was nice, but too much reliance on it might not be helpful. The issue should be consolidating and simplifying the statistics to give trends; results instead of referring people to cold hard stats.
IRC was done very well this year: it was a place where random people, even board members, would show up about issues, suggestions etc. Giving them an outlet and letting them feel like they have been heard really helped a lot but it can also get distracting. The structure we had towards the end with a dedicated team person overseeing the IRC all day who would ping in other team members on IM about questions and issues, and provide answers, was really efficient.
Regular updates were key. Better link to main stats page helpful.
Consider a volunteer response team who could be prepared to respond to blog/news posts, especially critical comments. This would have to be smartly done, to avoid tribe-response appearance, but could involve: answers to common questions, responses to common criticisms, and links to important pages (e.g. wikipedia:about, strategic planning doc, FAQ).
Testing & MessagingEdit
The lesson of this fundraiser, for me, was testing, as much as community. Decide if a massive crowd-sourced slogan effort is helpful, or if it creates more noise than signal... and I really liked the slogans, but to no avail.
Highlight new features (from the past year... vector, commons uploader, video support, WYSIWYG???)
If text messages aren't performing well, recognize this early on and have the community use their considerable talents elsewhere.
The fundraiser is a monstrous effort, requiring massive support from hundreds of volunteers who are supported by a very few staff members. For 2010, the staff team included:
Zack Exley, Chief Community Officer
Philippe Beaudette, Head of Fundraiser
Tomasz Finc, Engineering Project Manager
Megan Hernandez, Community Officer (responsible for massive amounts of the operation, including all testing)
Molly Connelly, James Alexander, Alex Zariv, Dan Rosenthal, Kelly Lyman, Salmaan Haroon, Sam Chapman, Deniz Gultekin, Josh Vandavier, Moushira Elamrawy, Keegan Peterzell, Peter Gehres, Ryan Faulkner (all Associate Community Officers, responsible for outreach, testing, email, coordinating with chapters, and execution of design)
Arthur Richards, Ryan Kaldari (fundraiser tasked developers)
Additional InformationEdit
For comprehensive information, please see the Fundraising 2010 page
For information on past fundraisers, please see Reports on past fundraisers
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fundraising_2010/Report&oldid=19136809"
Last edited on 5 June 2019, at 03:48


text:
US warns against travel to Tanzania over same-sex unions row
Mr Paul Makonda, the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam, announced last year that a newly formed surveillance squad would scrutinise social media in order to identify and arrest same-sex couples. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The new US announcement updates a Tanzania travel warning issued in September that focused on an alleged case of Ebola.
Government officials subsequently denied that the disease was present in Tanzania, and the new US advisory makes no mention of Ebola.
It does say that many types of violent crimes were common in Tanzania.
By KEVIN J. KELLEY
The US State Department on Tuesday urged travellers to Tanzania to "exercise increased caution" due in part to threats that gay people may experience there.
The advisory comes as another indication that the Trump administration was not abandoning the Obama-era practice of speaking out on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Africans.
"Members of the LGBTI community have been arrested, targeted, harassed, and/or charged with unrelated offences," the State Department declared in its updated advisory on travel to Tanzania.
"Individuals detained under suspicion of same-sex sexual conduct could be subject to forced anal examinations."
Mr Paul Makonda, the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam and an ally of President John Magufuli, announced last year that a newly formed surveillance squad would scrutinise social media in order to identify and arrest same-sex couples.
The new US announcement updates a Tanzania travel warning issued in September that focused on an alleged case of Ebola. Government officials subsequently denied that the disease was present in Tanzania, and the new US advisory makes no mention of Ebola.
"Local police may lack the resources to respond effectively to serious crime," the December 3 advisory adds.
It also states that "terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Tanzania".
6 News Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi arrested