----- Original Message ----
From: Steven Walling steven.walling@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Thu, February 3, 2011 10:03:58 PM Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Changes to the identification policies and procedures
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Demanding answers on Foundation-l is a lot different than the news about an upcoming change trickling out into the community prior to an official announcement. The latter does no harm. The former can derail a productive discussion about a delicate issue before it's ready for public comment.
I could not disagree more strongly. The thing that derails productive discussions and inflames delicate issues is gossip trickling about variably and the distortions that are inevitable when third hand information is being repeated. Not an open discussion on Foundation-l. If it at all seems otherwise, it is only because the more common practice among Wikimedians is to only bring discussions to Foundation-l *after* they have been well-worked over by the gossip network. I take issue with the implication that you would not object to someone spreading this news over IRC, but find it objectionable to it being spread here.
I imagine MZMcBride's inquiries have so often been slanted as though they had originated from a hardened negative opinion, because he gets his information from the gossip network rather than the WMF. I think I am so often ignorant because I do the opposite. It seems to me, that MZMcBride has been taking pains for sometime to change the tone of his messages. I personally have noticed a continual incremental improvement on his part. It bothers me that despite what I would rate as his success in crafting a neutral and reasonable message, he is still characterized as demanding answers and chided for bringing up the issue altogether. Whatever anyone else thinks MZMcBride, I have noticed your efforts and I appreciate them a great deal. Introspection and change are hard things to do; thank you.
The main reason foundation-l is less useful than it could be is because is not because people are *capable* of accusing WMF of wrongdoing in an aggressive tone on an open list. It is because they are *encouraged* to do so by the trend of responses from those connected with WMF. Asking reasonably neutral questions leads to silence or being shut down completely, while accusations of wrongdoing in an aggressive tone provokes snide answers. One of these methods of seeking information on foundation-l turns out to be more effective than the other. Of course, gossiping is most effective of all. But I for one, care enough about the long-term health of the Wikimedia community and it's ability to integrate newcomers as to prefer ignorance.
Birgitte SB