[Foundation-l] Re: Cleaning up Wikibooks

Fri Nov 25 12:39:11 UTC 2005

Anthere wrote:

> I would like to make it clear that Jimbo's opinion should be his 
> opinion, unless specifically said to be board opinion. Angela, I, 
> Michael and Tim, we are all human beings with our own opinions on 
> things and unless we are specifically asked our opinion, I do not 
> think it is okay to consider that what Jimbo's say, we necessarily go 
> along with. By default, we are separate people. Similarly, this is not 
> because we do not say anything on a topic, that we necessarily agree 
> with the only one talking. We may disagree and decide not to say 
> anything or we may not be aware of the issue at all. I think it is 
> important not to make these types of confusions.
>
> Ant 

As a long-time participant on this list, and having been through 
discussions like this, I can understand and relate to this fact that 
Jimbo does not always speak on behalf of the whole board.  Remember I 
was just reposting a comment from another user who put this on my 
personal user talk page.  I'm making these statements here to let the 
board as a whole and the broader Wikimedia community know what Jimbo has 
said in a capacity that seems to be in the minds of the ordinary users 
on Wikibooks as speaking on behalf of the board as a whole.  And as was 
stated, absent either Jimbo explicitly stating this is only his personal 
opinion or a statement like the one above from any other board member, 
there is no reasonable way to know if it is only his own opinion on what 
policy changes need to happen on Wikibooks (the real issue, where Jimbo 
did change policy without community concent or any user input at all) or 
if this is something that the Foundation board has been talking about 
for some time and Jimbo is just acting as the hatchet man.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning