Wikipedia:Geonotice

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A geonotice is a notice similar to a sitenotice, anonnotice or watchlist notice, but it is displayed only to users who are physically located in some subset of the Earth.

The purpose of geonotices is to announce events that would be of great interest to people in a specific region, but that would not be interesting to most of our readers. The use of targeted messages allows us to scale our communication better; rather than flooding people with multiple messages or avoiding messages entirely, we can display messages only to the people who are most likely to find them useful.

One example use for targeted messages is to announce upcoming Wikipedia meetups. Another might be to display customized fundraiser notices that are better targeted to improve our fundraising results.

Currently, only a watchlist geonotice exists. The current implementation works by loading a small JavaScript page from an auxiliary Wikimedia server (toolserver.org). Once the possible applications of this feature are better understood, it will be integrated into MediaWiki proper. One significant open question is how best to allow users to specify the locations of interest for a message. Right now, the location range must be hard-set in the software.

The location detection is IP address-based. We are currently using a freely distributable database that maps this information to locations.

The accuracy of this geolocation process is somewhat limited. The user's continent and country are almost always accurately determined, but their city may be misidentified, especially if their ISP uses the same address blocks to service multiple cities. Geonotices should always be used with the understanding that some of the intended audience will be excluded and that some unintended people will be included. As such, the message should be written in a way that would be suitable for display to all users. For example, write "The New York City Wikipedia Meetup will be on August 12" rather than "Hello resident of Long Island...".

No new data or personal information is gathered from users to make this notice possible, nor does this notice share any user's personal information with outsiders.

The notice can be persistently dismissed using a hide button that is displayed with the message. It can permanently be hidden by adding "#WN_GEON { display: none; }" to your CSS file.

Contents

[edit] Guidelines

Create request

To propose a geonotice, simply create a new third level section (using ===) under the "Requests" section, using the boilerplate text below, and follow the instructions in this section.
==== [[Related page name (e.g. meetup page)]] ====
'''Locations required (cities/regions):'''
* 
* 
'''Possible messages:'''
<!-- Only one is necessary, but two is recommended in case one is rejected -->
* 
* 
'''Date range required:'''
<!-- Please give us at least 5 days warning, unless you have an important reason -->
* 
'''Misc info:'''
* ''Reason for requesting:'' 
* ''User requesting:'' <!-- sign here with THREE tildes -->
=====Discussion=====

Locations

Try to be as specific as possible with the location. For example, a Washington, D.C. meetup would not be appropriate to advertise to everyone in the United States.
Be aware that the detection is not flawless; due to varying region boundaries and the inaccuracies of IP locating, the result cannot be perfect. If, for whatever reason, you need to reach everyone in the target area, request the surrounding areas as well.

Messages

Messages should be under three sentences in length, and they should not contain any flashy text or images. It is a good idea to provide at least two options, in case one is deemed inappropriate.
Messages exceeding four sentences are deemed too large, except in cases where the sentences are short.

Date range

Try to post your request at least five days (preferably seven to ten days) in advance. It may take a while for requests to be handled.
Requests should not be shown for meetups more than 2 months in advance.

Reason requesting

In the case of a meetup, where that page is linked and it is obvious by the message, this is not necessary. If there is possible confusion regarding the reason for the geonotice, please state a clear reason.

Notify geonotice maintainer

You must personally notify the geonotice maintainer of any new requests at User talk:Gmaxwell, or by e-mail if he is currently in a period of inactivity on the English Wikipedia.

[edit] Requests

Add new requests here.

[edit] Wikipedia:Wikipedia Takes Nashville

Locations required (cities/regions):

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Now till May 24 (date of event).

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: Attract volunteers and participants for the event.
  • User requesting: Kaldari (talk)

[edit] Discussion

[edit] mail:Wikimedia_NYC

Locations required (cities/regions):

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Recently created mailing list, so ASAP and then you can pick an end date (I would think at least 10 days)

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: New mailing list, would be put to the best use if the right people knew about it.
  • User requesting: Cbrown1023 talk

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Wikipedia:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan

Locations required (cities/regions):

  • Maybe eastern seaboard, maybe just NYC metro. You decide.

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Now till March 28 (date of event).

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: Attract volunteers for event with Columbia University students.
  • User requesting: Pharos (talk)

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Philly Wikimeetup 6

Locations required (cities/regions):

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Saturday, March 26th through Saturday, April 5

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: Attract more attendees to meetup
  • User requesting: TexasDex ★

[edit] Discussion
  • I support this. --evrik (talk) 18:22, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC

Locations required (cities/regions):

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Now till June 1, 2008 (date of event)

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: meetup notification
  • User requesting: Pharos (talk)

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Wikipedia:Meetup/Edinburgh 1

Locations required (cities/regions):

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Now until June 7th (date of event)

Misc info:

  • Reason for requesting: Meetup notification
  • User requesting: Astral (talk)

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Wikipedia:Meetup/San Francisco 6

Locations required (cities/regions):

  • San Francisco Bay Area
  • Davis, CA
  • Sacramento, CA

Possible messages:

Date range required:

  • Now until June 28th, 2008

Misc info:

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Previous requests