User:Panyd, who spotted the start of this whole incident on DYK, gave an
interview with Slate magazine, which she's been very misquoted in and is a
little upset about. She just emailed the UK list explaining her thoughts on
all this, so I'm sharing them here:
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*"I gave Slate an interview in the hopes of being the first non-crazy
person to talk about what Roger is actually doing - which, yes, I still
have problems with - but which isn't being Scrooge McDuck using WMUK to
grab all the money in the land whilst writing all the articles about
Gibraltar himself under the watchful gaze of the Tsar of Tourism. That is
the only reason I gave those people the time of day. They have now quoted
me as saying that Roger was writing and promoting the articles himself.
They completely contradict themselves at the end of the paragraph, which is
a hell of a lot closer to what I actually said, but...whatever, they can't
write.*
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*For the record, no. No I did not say that. Yes, I have issues. You know
what? I asked the community about them and they shrugged their shoulders
and said: "Eh, you're wrong." That's that then. If there are further
discussions about what I feel are relevant issues, then I'll join them in a
manner that AGF, because that is the Wikipedian way. People can be wrong,
right or somewhere in between but thorough, open and civil discussion
from both sides is required to help address the situation. (No
Wikipediocracy, I don't just mean you, people are talking about this
on-wiki too from multiple sides) Hopefully with a view to looking forward
and adapting to these situations, whether it's to welcome or deny them.*
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*I don't think this has anything to do with Wikimedia UK whatsoever, and
I'm sorry you're even having the discussion here. It should've stayed on
Wikipedia, where it belongs, and where there are appropriate channels for
people to discuss issues of paid editing, COI, impact on the project etc.
I'm also sorry to Roger, because differences of opinion regarding on-wiki
behaviour should not result in such incivility, or knee-jerk reactions. He
added much to WMUK, gave so much of his time and love to help the chapter
go forward, and to lose him is a great shame. For my part in that, I can
only apologise to Roger and the community.*
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*Fiona "*
