[Foundation-l] board candidacies

Fri Aug 11 16:37:25 UTC 2006

My English is very very very poor to write something, but I really need to
try it here. The point ins't the expenses for boarders. The point is what is
Wiki>>>M<<<edia (and not only Wikipedia, Wikipedia is only the most famous
project) is. Please, forgive the expenses question, Wikimedia ins't a travel
agency, Wikimedia is a Foundation devoted to Free Culture movement.

Some candidates in yours presentations appear to be in that election only to
give some important position in a famous website. Wiki>>>M<<<edia is so much
more than it and the boarder position is so much more than it. Please, read
again the full message from Anthere.

P.S.: Portuguese Wikipedia (my home wiki) periodically need to ask stressing
subjects to boarders (a community with 300 editor that don't have a
ArbCom committee).
I'm doubt if at least 50% of current candidates are ready to apply to a
position that lot's of anothers wikis need to listen periodically about lots
of subjects.

On 8/10/06, Anthere <anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> Being back from Wikimania, I have a look at the list of candidates and
> here is what I see:
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Election_candidates_2006
>
> I'd like to make a very serious appeal for candidates.
> I would hate to discourage some of you, but rather to be frank.
>
> Being on the board is not a game.
> It is not about changing the policies on the english wikipedia.
> It is not about improving welcome templates for newbies on wikipedia
> either.
> And it is not even about pushing the use of the german userboxes.
>
> What we need (desperately need) is people who understand what the
> Foundation is, what our needs are, where the challenges are located.
>
>
> I listed some of the challenges in my presentation at Wikimania;
> (http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:FD1). I have no
> idea when the audio will be accessible, but I think any candidate should
> at least have a look/ear to it.
>
> What would be best are people who already know and participate to
> Wikimedia Foundation issue. I could cite dozen, many of whom were at
> wikimania. A couple candidated, but I also know they are controversial
> so might end up not being in the top.
>
> I would like that non english editors take the chance to run. Not being
> english is certainly an handicap due to the huge number of english
> voters. Naturally, if you are mostly known in one community, you'll get
> a disadvantage. But if you are also a meta participant, the word can be
> disseminated that you are a high quality person. Because meta people
> know you and can tell about you in the local communities. You have a
> chance !
>
>
> I will not hide the fact that being on the board is highly frustrating.
> It is a lot of work. It costs personal money. It is little rewarded. It
> carries its generous load of humiliation.
>
> But... if you care about the projects, if you care about their future,
> if you care about giving a chance to the content to stay free for real,
> if you care about the risk of being "adopted" by a commercial firm, if
> you care about the risk of seeing the freedom being reduced to protect
> what is merely a legal entity, if you care about us being an
> international entity rather than being a pure american business and
> professional foundation, please, do help.
>
> Please.
>
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