[Foundation-l] New list admin: Ral315

Sun Aug 17 15:27:47 UTC 2008

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Michael Bimmler wrote:
> I must say, I'm astonished what kind of seemingly uncontroversial
> decisions can spark so much drama again.
> 
> In fact, I echo Dan's suggestions that this thread should die again
> very quickly (for reasoning see below), but I figured that it would
> again be seen very negatively if I didn't respond here, so let me make
> a short statement:
> 
> 1) It is my opinion that Wikipedia would not be as successful as it
> is, if we had not Assumed Good Faith of each other at times. Can we
> please also apply this to this list (administration)?
> 
> 2) Some people here opposed Ral's appointment on procedural grounds
> ("How did you choose him? Why was this not a democratic process with a
> survey?"). Now, opposing a candidate (under such circumstances as we
> have them here) on merely procedural reasons seems rather meritless to
> me. May I suggest that you first wait to see how Ral does his job? In
> fact, in the best case you will hardly notice him doing anything,
> which is the way it should be.  If you have good reason to complain
> later, you can still start a 'vote of no-confidence' here...
> 
> 3) Others questioned his experience or activity: By all means, I can't
> take this serious. Ral has been here longer than many of you (or at
> least those who are the loudest critics), his en.wp involvement
> started in September 2004.
> And no, to anticipate a counter-argument, this is not irrelevant in
> this context -- he has a good grasp of Wikimedia affairs (obviously,
> as Signpost editor), he is experienced in dealing with..."difficult
> users" and thus he is in my eyes perfectly qualified for the job.
> That he is a less frequent poster than others on the other hand is
> really irrelevant here - he is not here to actively moderate any
> *discussion* (panel-style), he is here to moderate a *discussion
> list*. That's a fine but important difference. In fact, it gives him
> more time to do moderation work while you guys fire away your 10 posts
> an hour ;-)
> 
> 4) One last point about procedure: We received many applications, both
> off- and onlist. We considered all of them and have now chosen Ral315,
> that's the way application systems work. I'm not a friend of model
> letters ("Unfortunately your application was not successful, I hope
> you will apply again for other functions blablabla") and thus the
> approach was rather "Only successful applicants will be contacted".
> Sorry, if this wasn't made clear.
> And no, it's not practical to make an appointment hearing or even a
> vote for the job of list administrator. If you don't trust us as a
> team, organise a sound vote of no-confidence and if the board (or the
> technical staff or whomever) are satisfied that this vote reflects
> broad consensus, I'm sure they will replace us with other list
> administrators.
> 
> Please, let Ral315 do his job now and if you want to explore this
> further, do it off-list with us.
> 
> Regards,
> Michael
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

In deference to Dan I choose to welcome Ral.  I'll start by saying I do
trust the list owners.

In the future, I highly encourage the list owners to strive for
transparency.  That is to say, that right before an appointment, it
should be stated "We are considering appointing so and so, please send
comments privately to listowners at whatever.org".

Also, I highly encourage the list owners as a courtesy to let those who
applied know that they were considered, but not chosen.

I'm not asking for a boilerplate email, I'm asking for a personal one
with a couple of sentences.  This is professional courtesy in any
corporate or volunteer organization.  It is impolite not to do so.

- --
Best,
Jon

[User:NonvocalScream]
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