Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Tamil wikipedia/Wikiproject15-2017

Dear Shriheeran,

Thank you for your request for a Rapid Grant and for your contributions to Tamil Wikipedia.

Before we move forward with a decision, we have some suggestions:

• You are planning to generate or improve 25,000 articles through this contest, which is an ambitious goal! With only 30 participants, this would mean that participants are producing on average 800+ articles each. Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for contest participants?
• What support will you be offering new editors who are involved in the process, if any?
• Beyond discussions with the organizing team, has there been an on-wiki discussion about this idea with the Tamil-speaking community? Do you have a team of experienced Tamil Wikipedians on hand to review these contributions from new editors?
• We suggest that you consider a prize such as a gift certificate or book rather than distributing cash prizes. We don't normally fund cash prizes for editing contests.
• For a contest with 30 participants, awarding hefty cash prizes to 10 participants may not make sense. We suggest you reduce the number of winners receiving large value prizes, and reduce the overall amount for prizes accordingly. For a context with 30 participants, 3 winners might be more appropriate. If you want to include more winners, we suggest that you reduce the value of the prizes.

Thank you! We are looking forward to your responses and your implementation of these recommendations, so that we may continue to consider your request. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:48, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

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Winifred Olliff, Every replies for your comment are given here.

• Yes, 25,000 articles is an impossible thing. So some times we may reduce that to 15,000 article. And give another way to participate in the contest. That is to expand up minimum 200 articles which are included here. And we set alimit for getting prize. That is"One have to create at least 1500 articles for win prize and for creating additional articles we will give you special prizes."
• We may conduct a mini meetup and discuss with them, and also we will provide them gifts according to their contributions.
• Yes we have discussed about this project in Tamil Wikipedia. And most of the users specially admins are eager to conduct this contest and project. We have some good users who acts against vandalism and who supports new users. Some of them are AntanO, Kanags, Ravidreams, Mayooranathan. I can also review every new user's contribution and guide them in offline.
• In 2013 I have won cash prize through a Tamil Wikipedia writing contest. That's why I suggested cash prize. We give valuable certificates too. But most of the Indian and SriLankan people doesn't prefer books or other prizes rather than cash. That's why we decided to give cash prize. If you wish we can reduce the amount of cash prizes.
• The contest is dived into 2 categories, One is for existing editors and other is for new users. So According to your suggestion, we are reducing the prize by 250 USD. And now the prize amount is 960-250=710USD. Is this Okay. And 60 and 40 percentages of the prize is allocated for both 2 conests.

Thank you for your great ideas and We are expecting your reply...--Shriheeran (talk) 10:40, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

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Thank you for the prompt responses, Shriheeran. We very much appreciate that!

• I want to better understand the allocation for prizes we are discussing. Are you saying that US$710 would cover just three prizes?
• What costs are included in the US$300 allocated for the workshop? For example, food, venue, travel, other costs? How many participants do you expect?
• What costs are included in the US$175 allocated for printing? How many banners and posters do you plan to print? Where are you planning to display these banners and posters? This amount for printing seems very expensive for a one-time contest!
• Why is US$125 necessary for Internet costs? Is this entire amount to cover Internet costs for the one workshop / meetup you are planning in Jaffna?
• Finally, can you link to some of the discussions on Tamil Wikipedia in support of this idea? It sounds like you have a lot of support for the project, which is great news :)

Thanks again! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 17:20, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

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Winifred Olliff, Here are the Replies:-

• No, 710 USD will be dived into two category. One is for the contest between existing users (430 USD) And the second is for new users (250 USD). The prizes are distributed for top 10 users for the first contest and prizes are given for best 3 users per 10 days and totally 100 days.
• For a workshop totally 95 USD will be spent> But we have decided to conduct workshops in both SriLanka and Jaffna. We will request any existing users to conduct mini workshops among their institutions, regions and others. So they want money to conduct workshops. Therefore we will give them money and if they ask us. If the money not used after the project we will return it.
• 3 Banners cost 50 USD, 150 color posters cost 30 USD, Posters for media outreach cost 55 USD. And other extra printing cost is 40 USD. But the extra cost can be used for renting a video camera. Banners will be used in meet ups and workshops and posters for sending to educational institutions like schools. Through posters we can make school students to engage in the contest.
• We may buy a portable router or dongle, that's why this amount, and some cash for top ups when the internet data goes off for organizers not for participants.
• here is the talk page about the contest.

Waiting for your response and ideas, Sincerely:--Shriheeran (talk) 15:38, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

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Thank you for these replies, Shriheeran. Based on your application and these responses WMF will fund this request for a total of US$1660, on the condition that you use gift cards or gifts rather than cash prizes. We do think that offering prizes to 10 of the 30 top contributors seems like a very high proportion of awards; however, we are noting that this drive will last several months and is expected to produce large amounts of content, which might mean that more prizes are necessary to keep people motivated. We also really like the idea of a special category for new contributors, and look forward to learning whether or not that attracts more new people to the contest. We're very happy to see the Tamil communities in India and Sri Lanka improving Tamil Wikipedia together, and we love the idea of financing several local workshops rather than paying large amounts for volunteers to travel from place to place. We appreciate the discussion and planning that has gone into creating this request, and wish you the best of luck in implementing this contest.

This approval is contingent on some other conditions, which Janice and I will discuss with you by Email. Best, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:46, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

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Thank you for funding this proposal, I have asked you some questions on email. I briefly explain them here?

• This grant propasal is only for the year of 2017 but we have plan to conduct this in the year of 2018 also. Therefore we will request another grant for that. But I think that is not proper, and I wish to get the whole grant for our project. The budget for the whole grant is less than 2000USD. But according to the eligibility of Rapid grant, the grant is maximum for a year. But if we extend our project it takes more than 1 year. So can we propose that in this grant or in another? Please give your answer. If you approve this then we will request more 300 USD for the next year and totally 1660+300 USD. This is depended on your answers and decision.
• As you've said to not to give cash prizes, we will request the winner to obtain the prize as what he/ she prefer? If he/she prefer cash then they have to tell to you, By signing up or something else. Otherwise they will be provided with the prize according to their wish. What do you think about this?

We are waiting for your reply. Thanks again for decided to fund us.--Shriheeran (talk) 09:52, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

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Hello, Shriheeran!

• Cash prizes will not be an option. So the winners will have the option to accept a non-cash prize, or to decline the prize. You should make it clear up front that cash prizes won't be offered, so that the rules of the contest are clear to all of the participants.
• I'm not sure I understand your question about the length of the contest and additional funding. Do you mean that you are conducting a second contest in 2018, or that your contest will last more than the 9 months indicated on this grant application? What do you need the additional $300 for?

Best, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 19:25, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

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Dear Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer), Yes we are conducting this conducting a second contest in 2018, and if we conduct this our contest will last more than the 9 months indicated on this grant application.--Shriheeran (talk) 23:39, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Goals

This project aimed on creating many articles, but our community think that creating more stubs is useless, there for we decides to focus the stubs and expand them. We focus This list. And we decided to expand minimum 200 stubs. So avaragely 15,000 bytes is added to all articles and overall 3,000,000 bytes is added. This is a very risky task and the participants have to do their best in this project. And also they have to expand minimum 20 articles to get 6th to 10th place and have to expand 35 articles to get 5th to 1st prize. As well as we wish to create below 10,000 new articles through this project. I think this project is very interesting to the users and they will learn a lot from this project.--Shriheeran (talk) 00:36, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Changes

@Wolliff (WMF):, Our Tamil Wikipedia community has suggested some changes in the project. Therefore, some changes will be made in the project goals. The goals will be defined and implemented here after some days. --Shriheeran (talk) 01:46, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Too, there may be some changes in the project period . Thatmeans the starting month maybe postponed about one month (To May month)--Shriheeran (talk) 15:58, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, Shriheeran. Janice has told me that the funds have already been sent, so it is too late to move this proposal back to a draft. You may retain the funds until the discussion is completed with the community and there is a clear idea of how to move forward with the project (or not). If you all determine that less funding is needed or that you don't want to proceed with the contest, we can approve its use for other projects for the Tamil community, such as funding for local meetups or other programs the community is interested in pursuing. Please send us an update by 1 April. Best, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 17:17, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Sure, cheers--Shriheeran (talk) 10:01, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Documenting progress on this grant

• Following Ravishankar's intervention, it was decided to postpone the execution of this project to build consensus in the Tamil community about what kind of contests and celebration plan would be put in place for Tamil's Wikipedia's 15.
• Shriheeran and Ravishankar are working together on presenting a revised project to be implemented with the funds disbursed, by April 1, 2017.
• Since funds have already been disbursed, Shriheeran will be responsible for presenting the final revised plan, as well as producing the final report.
• The revised project will be subject to a new approval, please notify me here and through email at rapidgrantswikimedia.org of the revised project. You may document here the decided course of action but please DO NOT amend the main project page.

Thanks! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 19:49, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Delphine (WMF), Sure, I'll consider everything you mentioned here.--Shriheeran (talk) 01:17, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Delphine (WMF), I have notified you about the new changes done in our project, through the email of rapid grant committee--Shriheeran (talk) 15:36, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Revised version of Wikiproject 15

Goals

1. Add or Improve content
2. Improving Tamil Wikipedia in this list.
3. Encourage existing active users
4. Recruiting New users

Ways to achieve goals

• For first 3 goals we are going to conduct the active user contest
  • Contest Page
  • Contest Achievements and Stats

• Recruiting new users
  • We will recruit new users through some Workshops and Wikipedia Introduction Programs which is going to held in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Expectations

• Improving at least 200 stubs from in this list.
• Making at least 30 active users to participate in the contest.
• Recruiting at least 2 new users to be engaged in Tamil Wikipedia.

Use of the remaining Grants

• We have obtained More than 200,000 LKR as grant. But the expected expenses are below 100,000 LKR.
• Therefore our community Wishes to use the remaining grant and the additional grant which is going to be requested in future, for the Celebrations of 15th Year Anniversary of Tamil Wikipedia, Media Outreach and Workshops.

--Shri (talk) 05:48, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Thank you Shri. Morgan Jue and Alex Wang will be looking at this and following up. Best, Delphine (WMF) (talk) 12:54, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Delphine (WMF), Thank you for replying and active user contest is starting on 1st May. Once again thanks!--Shri (talk) 13:09, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Hi Shri. Thank you for this updated project plan. We approve moving forward with these activities. I want to confirm that the prizes should not be cash prizes, but gift certificates or other types of prizes. In terms of unspent funds, please retain them until a new grant request is submitted. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:20, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

The prizes will be distributed according to the competitors wish. So, we didn't confirmed this in our wiki. And I'll reply you as soon as possible after the discussions in ta wiki, about distributing prizes. --Shri (talk) 01:27, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Update 2019

The Grant was used for 2 contests. An Article improvement contest was held from May 2017 to October 2017. INR 30,000 (LKR 75,000) was used for Prizes for the contest. A New User contest was held from Jan 1, 2019 to Mar 31, 2019. INR 52,000 (LKR 130,000) was used for Prizes for this contest. The two contests were quite successful and we ended up expanding 600+ articles during the first contest and adding 900+ articles during the second contest. However, INR 4,000 (LKR 10,000) was left unused for the second contest due to lack of participants who satisfied the contest rules. The winners are to be presented with appropriate gifts as Prizes during the 16th Year celebrations to be held in Jaffna, Sri Lanka later this year. With the grant fund acquiring an interest, about LKR 50,000 is being left unused from this grant. The Tamil Wikipedia community will discuss and decide how to utilize the remaining amount and update this section within a month. Please be kind enough to consider and approve the changes to the program. On behalf of Jaffna Tamil Wikipedians group, which is handling this grant now, I request you to grant us time until Dec 31, 2019 to submit the report for this grant. Thank you. --Sivakosaran (talk) 10:03, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Sivakosaran! Thank you for this update and for allowing time for the Tamil Wikipedia community to discuss how the remaining funds should be spent. Once you have reached an agreed decision, please post a request for these changes to be reflected so that our Rapid Grants team can review and approve it. In the meantime, we will extend your report submission date to 31 December 2019. We look forward to updates about this project in anticipation of its completion. Best, Morgan Jue (WMF) (talk) 20:25, 8 April 2019 (UTC)