Hi everyone,

As Sue mentioned, I am the co-moderator for the list. Thanks Sue for entrusting me with such.

This list has been a remarkable place for brainstorming, sharing opinions, discussion, rabble rousing, and inspiring for many - active or not - who subscribe. While we have had some really intense and emotional discussions, and we have lost a few subscribers because of it, I know personally, I have found the first safe place in the Wiki-world where I can be myself, share my thoughts, and partner with fellow Wikimedians passionate about not only closing the gender gap, but other subjects. This list has been highly productive, and in the next few months we have the opportunity to develop policy and documentation changes that will allow for a better and healthier community within Wikimedia as a whole, and look at what we're doing - we are already planning outreach programs, we're examining what makes this problem exist and how representation is being handled in Wikimedia projects. We might not be the first, but, we surely are make firsts.

On that note - this week has been high strung for sure. We've seen heads butt and words used that aren't always the nicest (and I'm guilty at that also!).

I think the best thing we can do to keep this list drama free (at least, in poo-slinging manner) is to take a look at WP:Civility. While it's not perfect, and I understand not every culture, community or Wikipedian might agree with it - I do think that it can provide a nice skeleton for the mailing list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility without having to develop a "special" set of rules.

For me, this is about respect, good manners, good conversation/argument, and wikilove - and a revolution. And being nice is not hard, and a good argument (in that passionate over a bottle of wine type of way) can be friendly and healthy - so let's remember that.

In the past week we've seen things that some might categorize as "personal attacks <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_personal_attacks> , rudeness, disrespectful comments, and aggressive behaviours that disrupt the project and lead to unproductive stress and conflict."  (From WP:Civility)

We're all rather mature people here, and I think we need to remember - we are colleagues in a way - this is research, exploration, and education - the activity and behavior that we've seen and some (including me) have participated in over the past week is not healthy or normal for educational environments (sorry people we're writing an encyclopedia/dictionary/media library/etc., here!). Much of it is the type of behavior that we have been complaining about that takes place on other mailing lists and on-Wiki.

So, let's all have a big breather and remember that some of us will disagree, that some of us might not (always) like each other, and return to being civil, understanding, creative and passionate about closing the gender gap!

Thanks everyone,

Sarah