On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Zack Exley zexley@wikimedia.org wrote:
I haven't read this thread, but I'll explain my editing history as Wikitedium:
Thanks for the explanation. I think it would have helped if you'd read the actual criticisms, but I understand this is a long thread.
false facts. So I saw Wikipedia as an open encyclopedia "that anyone can edit" where I could set the record straight. Later I learned it was against policy and FELT REALLY BAD.
To recap the email thread -- i think everybody has pretty much agreed that
your edits from 2006 to 2010 were not inconsistent with normal newbie behavior -- maybe not ideal, but also not the subject of anybody's strong criticism of you. My criticism is of the actions you took with this account as of February 2010 forward.
Anyway -- thank you for adding the disclosure to your Wikitedium user page.[1] I respect Risker's more knowledgeable assessment of the sockpuppetry policy; while the Conflice of Interest guideline was not observed, I see that there was no outright violation of policy (or at least, there hasn't been since the disclosure was made in May 2012, after using the Wikitedium account several more times, and with its inaccurate user page intact.[2]) I do personally believe this is a bad approach for a senior executive in charge of community relations to take, and unnecessarily impacts the relationship between WMF and the rest of the community; but clearly there are diverse views about that, and since it's in the past I don't see much point in further discussion.
Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Wikitedium&diff=60463966... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Zackexley&diff=491298197...