--- Brad Patrick bradp.wmf@gmail.com wrote:
Hmm, I think you may be missing something pretty important. In fact, the definition of community is the single most difficult thing to agree upon. What is my community, your community, etc. does not have answers. The Board retreat could not answer it with the 25 people who were there. The Board itself cannot agree on the meaning. Certainly, though, you do not have the hubris to think that this thing called Wikimedia exists only for editors, to the exclusion of the millions of people who view it every day? I view the orthodox idea that the community consists of, and can only consist of, editors as being at least as insulting as the opposite would be to Horning. Millions of people *read* the site, and do not contribute a comma. And that's okay! Generators *and* consumers of free culture must be incorporated. If we are philosophically opposed as people who differ on whether a sound is made when a tree falls in forest, so be it.
If we are going to reach for a definition of what our community is, I do not think it would be hubris to say that it includes everybody who helps us toward our goal of making free content available to everybody in the world in a language they can understand. That would certainly include all editors but also includes everybody who donates or even those who spread the word about our projects and our goals. Extending that to all regular readers is not much of a leap since they are sharing in the proceeds of our goal and furthering it just by tuning in and giving our editors a practical reason to edit well.
-- mav
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