[Foundation-l] Fairness

Fri May 28 09:23:00 UTC 2004

Erik Moeller wrote:

"Just imagine a situation where this election wouldn't be done on a website,
but orally, and each candidate would be given 5 minutes to introduce
themselves."

Erik, a bad analogy. This medium has its own rules, as you often like to
point out yourself. On one of the talk pages you used unequal TV exposure as
an comparison. Same answer.

If a candidate is willing to take the risk that the reader turns away from
his or her statement because it is more words than content, so be it. I'd
rather be the judge of that myself as a reader. Your second argument, that
this is a rule per se and all have to abide, makes me smile. Wikipedia
convinced me that anarchism can work at times, and now petty fighting over
silly rules takes hold. Let me suggest to the committee to exchange this
rule for a smarter one: present candidacy statements in order of number of
words. Shortest statement comes first.

By the way

- I propose all candidates apply for both positions, so as to make this a
non-issue. We want two candidates that are capable and willing to handle all
kinds of issues, and not be confined to vague role playing. With only three
real wikipedians on the board there is no room for segmentation. Also, I
sensed on several discussions that many do not see a clear distinction
between the roles.

- As for ex officio board members Michael and Tim. I would welcome it if
they took the time to present themselves, or rather their views on
WikiMedias future. Tim has a user page, but not much in it.

Regards, Erik Zachte