MZMcBride, 12/05/2013 22:45:
Why did you feel compelled to act here when it wasn't your decision? Was there something preventing Gayle from doing this herself?
Be honest, if Gayle had done this herself you would have said that maybe she hadn't read the documentation on Special:UserRights carefully and it was a mistake. :)
It's pretty strange to involve yourself in this decision (that wasn't yours) and then turn around and say "well why are you pointing at me?!" You were raised in a wiki culture, just as I was, where an individual is responsible for the actions of his or her account. You obviously felt an obligation to act here. What remains unclear is why.
To me it's very clear, nobody wanted to take responsibility or blame for the decision(*) so they let someone who's going out of town take the blame, someone in another department press the button, and the top management cover everything with flimsy rhetoric. Next time they could do better, the act could be executed before a longer holiday or be spread across more departments (a third person to send the notification emails, or a deflag squad of 14 staffers as with fusillading). But no worries, the WMF is still a young org and is learning.
Nemo
(*) Which may have been discussed for several weeks, as Nathan pointed out.