[Foundation-l] Jimbo's Sexual Image Deletions

[Sydney Poore]

The primary reason that several weeks back I became involved in the Common's
discussions about sexually explicit content is my work with the strategic
planning process for WMF. During the strategic plannings discussions, I
became acutely aware of the problems with the lack of diversity among WMF
readers and editors. As I considered the topic, I came to the conclusion
that WMF hosting an unlimited amount of sexually explicit content could be
"one" of the barriers for WMF being more diverse.

The manner that we display nudity and sexually explicit content makes it
difficult to avoid. Currently, our policies and practices do not allow for
special care when displaying the content (for deletion discussion,
categorizing, or links to our sister projects, ...). So, people may
unexpectedly see it. In my opinion, the current approach to managing the
content is insensitive to many people in the world of many nationalities and
religions, and people that access WFM projects through settings where
sexually explicit content is inappropriate or not allowed. So, I see a
policy that better manages the content as potentially making WMF projects
open to more users.

I support the clean up effort by Jimmy and the administrators on Commons for
the images that have no significant educational value. I also understand
that to some editors who are new to thinking about the issue that this may
seem abrupt. So, I encourage good communication between all the stakeholders
so that we can understand each others concerns and address them.

I'm also hopeful that technical solutions will be implemented and will
resolve the concerns about hosting images that have an educational value.but
are not appropriate for all readers in all settings.

Sydney Poore
(FloNight)

On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 3:45 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede <janbart at wikimedia.org>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Speaking for myself I can state that Jimmy is a part of the community and
> that the board statement is in support of both his and the other
> administrators who have taken the initiative to clean up commons.
>
> Also, I would refer you to Jimmy's talk page on commons, as there is an
> active discussion going on there.
>
> Jan-Bart de Vreede
> Vice Chair Wikimedia Board of Trustees
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> On 7 mei 2010, at 21:38, Thomas Dalton wrote:
>
> > On 7 May 2010 20:30, Jan-Bart de Vreede <janbart at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I would like to point you to:
> >>
> >>
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2010-May/000008.html
> >
> > My interpretation of that is that Jimmy's unilateral deletions are not
> > done with the support of the rest of the board, since the email talks
> > about encouraging the community to deal with the problem. Is that
> > correct?
> >
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