[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

Fri Mar 14 14:57:30 UTC 2008

As there is no thorough research, we don't know how exceptional I am. I
believe that there are many voters like me.

But anyway - we cannot dictate voters on what criteria they must choose
people to represent them.

And I don't want that anybody can say about our good Maltese friend: "Well,
he is only in the council because he is from Malta and was elected by his
own socket puppets."

Ziko

2008/3/14, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru>:
>
> Hi Ziko,
>
> I hear what you are saying but I am afraid you are rather an exceptional
> voter. I have heard much more often the motivations of the type "This guy
> has an excellent contribution, but we have never come across, so I am not
> going to vote for him". I myself got several abstination votes on my admin
> elections with this motivation.
>
> Cheers
>
> Yaroslav
>
>
>
> > Yaroslav, I think that I understand your concern: to give people a
> chance
> > even if they work in a small project / language. I agree. But it should
> > only
> > be a *chance*, not a *reservation* for beiing Maltese.
> >
> > Let us think about two Maltese, a bad and a good one.
> >
> > The bad Maltese is someone *only* occupied with the ma.WP. (Is this the
> > language code? I should ask my friend in Malta! :-) ) He does not
> > contribute
> > to any other projects, and his ma.WP is quite bad, pretending a lot of
> > articles - created by a bot. No, this bad Maltese will have hardly a
> > chance
> > to be elected to the Board nowadays or to the Council in future. And I
> > think
> > that he really should not be there.
> >
> > The good Maltese has helped to create a great ma.WP: small, but of high
> > quality (bytes per article etc.) You can check that with the help of the
> > statistics and also have a glance at ma.WP, you don't need to understand
> > the
> > language. The good Maltese has created the Maltese Wikisource. He has a
> > lot
> > of experience about fundamental things, and he talks about on Meta. I
> > think
> > that this good Maltese has a very good chance in the elections. Not only
> > contributors to other small Wikipedias (the MANY small Wikipedias!) will
> > favor him, but also me.
> >
> > By the way, in the Board elections of 2007 I did not choose people
> because
> > I
> > knew them from the German Wikipedia (was there a German at all?),
> because
> > they a) seemed to have experience in more than one project/language and
> b)
> > had a good message.
> >
> > Ziko
> >
> >
> >
> > 2008/3/14, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru>:
> >>
> >> > Yaroslav M. Blanter wrote:
> >> >> Hoi Gerard,
> >> >>
> >> >> I think actually that Milos and you are advocating the two extremes.
> >> >>
> >> >> I do not think we can form a board having a representative of every
> >> >> (reasonably defined) big project.
> >> >>
> >> >> I also do not think we should leave these projects without
> >> >> representation.
> >> >>
> >> >> Let us take again the hypotetical Maltese wikipedian (for
> >> definiteness,
> >> >> a
> >> >> male Wikipedian) who happens to mainly edit a project with 10 other
> >> >> active
> >> >> editors (I am not exactly sure what the actual  standing of the
> >> Maltese
> >> >> Wikipedia is, let us discuss this as a hypothetical example). If he
> >> is
> >> >> not
> >> >> an admin on a larger Wikipedia (say English) and not a steward, he
> >> doe
> >> >> not
> >> >> get a public exposure outside his own small project. This typically
> >> >> means
> >> >> he stands no chance to be elected by a general vote, whatever
> >> brilliant
> >> >> he
> >> >> is. We can not help this. What we can do is to reserve say one
> >> Council
> >> >> seat all (reasonably defined) small projects and design the
> procedure
> >> >> how
> >> >> these projects will elect their representative. The idea of such as
> >> seat
> >> >> would be to ensure that (similar) problems of all small Wikipedias
> >> are
> >> >> being heard. If we reserve zero seats, they are just not
> represented.
> >> If
> >> >> wee select a seat for each project, there is no way the Council will
> >> be
> >> >> operational.
> >> >>
> >> >> Cheers,
> >> >> Yaroslav
> >> >
> >> > And ?
> >> >
> >> > Even if we reserve a seat... who will elect the guy ?
> >> >
> >> > The 5 members of the Maltese wikipedia ? Why should I trust 5 members
> >> > who approve one guy to be in charge of the governance of the
> >> Foundation
> >> > ? For all I know, they might be his 2 brothers, 1 cousin, a friend
> and
> >> > his lover.
> >> >
> >> > Or the 5 members of the Maltese Wikipedia + 2 members of the corsican
> >> > wikipedia + 6 members of the volapuck and 7 members from the swahili
> ?
> >> > 2+6+7 of those not knowing the candidate and maybe not even sharing a
> >> > common language with him ? Why would the swahili guys vote for a
> >> maltese
> >> > guy they have never heard about ?
> >> >
> >> > Ant
> >> >
> >>
> >> If you want me to elaborate, yes, in my proposal it will be 5 members
> of
> >> Maltese wikipedia + 2 members of the Corsican Wikipedia etc. If they do
> >> not share the common language with the candidate they are not going to
> >> vote for him, that's simple. If they do not feel they are represented
> by
> >> this guy - fine, they vote for somebody else. We can make sure there is
> >> a
> >> rotation, for instance, if a representative of maltese Wikipedia takes
> >> the
> >> seat, next year he is not eligible to run for this seat. And we can
> >> think
> >> about the channels small Wikipedias would reach their representative.
> >> But
> >> if it all goes to unrestricted general vote - none of these projects is
> >> going to be represented. Then only stewards/active members of big
> >> projects
> >> have a chance to be elected, and we are back to the countless
> >> lamentations
> >> about insufficient representation of the community.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> Yaroslav
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ziko van Dijk
> > Roomberg 30
> > NL-7064 BN Silvolde
> > _______________________________________________
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> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
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> >
>
>
>
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-- 
Ziko van Dijk
Roomberg 30
NL-7064 BN Silvolde