Thankfully, this change was thought to be temporary.
I wonder though how many fundamental violations is removing such an important feature
without warning community. As mentioned on Erik's comment above, that was suddenly
changed without any warning and preparation. Not providing proper community participation
was a mistake that should have been acknowledged already. Sometimes Bugzilla is used in
ways that it shouldn't. Community should be aware that CAPTCHA would be removed soon,
but it wasn't. Most users were aware only when it was already removed. It is not that
you needed permission to do it as it was mistakenly understood by some; it is just a heads
up so community could prepare for it.
Teles
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 23:29:30 -0400
From: z(a)mzmcbride.com
To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] What community initiatives have made an impact on editor
engagement?
Tim Starling wrote:
Note that CAPTCHAs have now been re-enabled on the
Portuguese
Wikipedia. Erik made the decision, in response to on-wiki consensus. I
deployed the change just now.
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49860#c75>
Lest there be any confusion or doubt: this is a Bad Thing. We should take
this time to explicitly state here (or even re-state here, it's important)
that using CAPTCHAs in this way is a fundamental violation of our core
principles, particularly site accessibility and openness.
As a compromise measure between wiki sovereignty and autonomy and our
deeply held values, there's been a temporary reinstatement of the CAPTCHAs
on the Portuguese Wikipedia for the remainder of 2013. After December 31,
2013, these CAPTCHAs will be re-disabled. Hopefully no other wiki will
feel the need to invoke such a drastic measure ever again.
MZMcBride
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