Erik Moeller wrote:
I know that Wikia/WMF related stuff is pretty exciting, but really, we have work to do. We're not going to not make a decision that is right just because it creates fodder for trolling. (And I hope that if this turns into a troll-fest, the list moderators will take appropriate action.)
Mailing-list controversy is hardly the main PR problem here; the continuing confusion this creates in the wider world about the extent to which Wikia and the Wikimedia Foundation are entangled is a bigger one. It certainly *looks* suspicious. I know if something like this happened at some other organization I wasn't involved in---say, the Sierra Club was leasing space from a for-profit environmental lobbying firm founded by a Sierra Club board member---I would certainly raise my eyebrows, and I'd be skeptical when they assured me that there really weren't any shenanigans going on.
There's a reason organizations that depend on public goodwill try to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in this sort of respect, and auditors usually suggest avoiding those sorts of entanglements.
-Mark