If this were true, then Wil could have taken part in
discussion on
Wikipediocracy with a throw-away anonymous account to educate himself
on the culture there. I am sure that Wil and Lila know how to keep an
internet account anonymous, or they can ask someone on their personal
network who does know.
To parody a little, but not much, "Hello, I'm the partner of the new
CEO of the WMF and I would like to ask you about what you think of the
WMF projects... Oh, please pretend that I have nothing to do with the
CEO of the WMF." No, that just does not add up.
What would happen if I didn't say it? I'd probably be considered
deceitful for *not* telling people upfront. :) It's worked pretty well
to tell people what they believe they need to know about me from the
get-go and then convince them that I'm my own person with my words and
actions. I can also see some arguments for your approach, however.
As someone partial, due to the actions of some
participants of 'that
website' to deride my life as a gay man, my view is that Lila is
actively losing good faith, before she has managed to deliver anything
for our movement, by not having a word with her partner to stop him
playing silly and potentially destructive games using her name as if
he were the charitable "First husband" playing ambassador.
Could you please tell me more about any potentially homophobic
comments that have been made on Wikipediocracy? Here or by email,
whichever you think is most appropriate. My email is wllm(a)wllm.com. I
want no part of any site that practices bigotry.
I think we can settle the whole "'First husband' playing ambassador"
thing. I'm not an ambassador for anybody. I am a person who values his
individuality. I think that's pretty common in the WP community. In
fact, I'm not even legally Lila's husband, so technically I'm not
First anything. :) And that's a-ok with me. I just ask for a chance to
show you guys that I can be a productive member of the WP community in
my own way as myself and nobody else. Fae, will you please give me
that chance?
Wil has a right to free speech (in the UK we have
similar law, it
amounts to "meh, you are free to make an arse out yourself"). This
ensures his right to be free to irretrievably cock up Lila's
reputation in the eyes of the Wikimedia community's most active and
productive volunteers.
If the larger WP community believes that my actions and words should
be weighed heavily on Lila as an ED, then that's not about me or
anything I have done. That's about what the community believes makes
for a great leader. I personally think that such an attitude would be
a great injustice to one of the greatest leaders the WMF could hope to
find. But if this is really the way the WP community works, then I
think each and every one reading this should ask themselves: "Is this
the kind of community I want?"
If Lila is going to be good at managing politics
within our movement,
now would be an excellent time to start demonstrating it, rather than
pretending she does not know about the games Wil is playing within the
Wikimedia movement that she is being handsomely paid to support.
I don't know about Lila, but I think a lot of Wikipedians are pretty
much done with the politics. They seem to be more interested in
spending their time working on Wikipedia itself.
Thanks much for the feedback, tho. I'd really appreciate it if you
could get back to me about any prejudice you've encountered here or on
WO. I think it goes without saying that this is definitely *not*
something we want anywhere in our community.
,Wil