On 01/12/17 10:28, Carmen Bianca Bakker wrote:
(Re-sending this e-mail because I wrongly addressed the first)
Op 30-11-17 om 16:26 schreef Gergely Székely:
I think it was not a good idea at all to change the "Join the ..." to "Become a supporter".
My point is that "being a member" of something (even if just an associate one) suggests a much stronger bound than being just a "supporter". So I think using phrases as "Join the FSFE", "become a(n associate) member" etc is way more compelling for most of the people.
I agree partially. There is a small problem, however: Previously, it was unclear that one could "join" the FSFE without making financial contributions. Upon clicking the "join" button, you were prompted to make a donation, and this was the only way into the fellowship.
And upon joining the FSFE (i.e., becoming a fellow), you would not have equal status to all other FSFE members. Staffers and members of the GA would have a say in the FSFE's goings-on, whereas fellows didn't, not really. Thus "joining" the FSFE was kind of false advertising.
It is even more than that: because the "Join" click was immediately followed by a request for a recurring payment, people would be very likely to feel the recurring payment is like a membership fee and gives them a right to vote.
Thus the logical solutions were twofold:
Allow people to become fellows without making financial contributions, and grant fellows voting rights.
Change the wording to better reflect reality.
Understandably, option 1 isn't very appealing.
However, I would be in _full_ support of reinstating the usage of "fellow" for volunteers who contribute time and effort. But then, maybe "volunteer" also cuts it?
I really miss this inviting spirit from fsfe.org. (Also, why is no similar banner on fsfe.org in the last two months of every year?)
If you can contribute such a banner, we would be extremely happy to add it. Unfortunately it's outside of my abilities. I'm not a web developer.
I think recruiting members and encouraging people to donate is important. So it worth making extra efforts to doing it right.
I agree
Another idea that was raised: keep the "Join" buttons and the "Join" page, but make it very clear on the page what people can do, e.g. give them boxes they can tick:
[ ] I want to become a financial supporter but not voting member
[ ] I want to volunteer
[ ] I want to apply for a job or internship
[ ] I want to attend meetings in my town
[ ] I want to become a voting member
Regards,
Daniel