[Foundation-l] Blink tag jokes are now obsolete.

Thu Jan 12 02:29:42 UTC 2012

On 1/10/12 10:48 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 8:06 AM, Erik Moeller<erik at wikimedia.org>  wrote:
>>  From the standpoint of creating a balanced, community-friendly
>> campaign that's respectful and responsive, decentralizing
>> decision-making about the shape of the campaign to the geographic
>> level is IMO likely to do the opposite: It will create more pressure
>> (because it's a more competitive environment) between fundraising
>> entities to maximize revenue and push the limits, while reducing
>> visibility of (and associated accountability for) specific choices
>> like the above among the wider Wikimedia community.
>>
> Yes, very symptomatic of the organiosational malaise. Folks up on
> high just not giving up on the idea that they know best, and trying to
> finagle a way to make their way against a very solid community view.
>
> To be perfectly honest we need to set red lines for the foundation,
> beyond which the community will not follow,but will fork, with the
> full force of the intent. Learn to listen, foundation, don't try to sell
> things. You aren't put into your positions to sell things to the
> community. You are their servants. Get it?
>
While I agree with that, "the chapters" are not equivalent to "the 
community", so I think some caution should maybe be exercised on all 
sides. If anything the chapters seem less representative, driven by 
smaller, more clique-ish groups. I'm not sure their use of money is 
better, either. My attempts to track down financial reports of the 
larger chapters to see what proportion of the money has gone towards 
actually improving the encyclopedia has not inspired confidence; the WMF 
both seems more transparent in its accounting, and more careful in 
making sure a large proportion of its spending goes directly into its 
charity work. The various chapters' nationalistic attempts to "own" 
various language encyclopedias, along with a bitter rush towards the 
money-trough, is also a bit unseemly, and doesn't seem to have much to 
do with "community" to me, unless you take a very bureaucratic view of 
community.

-Mark