On 3/27/07, Philip Sandifer snowspinner@gmail.com wrote:
On Mar 27, 2007, at 12:56 PM, Michael Bimmler wrote:
Could we please refrain from referring to the fact that Cary / bastique happens to be foundation staff. I think he has made it perfectly clear in one of his last emails that he felt insulted as Wikipedian and not as Wikimedia Foundation staff member.
In a word... no.
It's incredibly damaging to efforts to create responsible sourcing practices on Wikipedia for someone who, earlier in the thread, spoke as a representative of the Foundation to speak in support of bad policy. I know that Foundation members don't always speak on behalf of the Foundation. Just as Jimbo doesn't always speak ex cathedra.
quoting http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-March/066725.html which was a reply to my question whether these were statements as foundation staff or as private person:
"These [comments] are made by myself individually. I'm not listed on the WP:OFFICE page and have never been officially recognized as having OFFICE authority.
I am still a volunteer on the Wikimedia project, still work on External Correspondence, and I still have feelings as a human being, and still get insulted just like everyone else."
I agree that people (many people on this list...) need to choose their words more carefully, but please allow Cary to have a voice separate from his foundation activities. Just because he is a foundation staff member, this does not mean that he cannot also speak in his own right. this is not about "is it an official statement or not" but rather "does the fact that he is foundation staff member matter in this respect?". As long as Cary does not "decree" something or officially state something referring to his position als Volunteer Coordinator, his opinion should be taken as the opinion of an interested wikimedian.
Thanks Michael
But we still do take their words seriously, and they need to be more carefully chosen all the time - not just some of it.
-Phil
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l