On Sat, Jun 11, 2022, 2:33 AM Mike Peel <email@mikepeel.net> wrote:
So I just received this:

 > Thank you all again for submitting your candidatures for the Wikimedia
 > Foundation Board of Trustees. The Board Selection Task Force and the
 > Elections Committee are excited to inform you about the first community
 > engagement opportunity of this 2022 Board election process.
 >
 >
 > The Affiliate Representatives will be submitting questions for
 > candidates to answer. The process will use the new Movement Strategy
 > Forum <https://forum.movement-strategy.org/>, based on the open-source
 > platform Discourse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_(software)>.
 > The great thing about Discourse is replies can be automatically
 > translated by users into their preferred languages. We will send you
 > each an email invitation to join a private category once the time to
 > answer questions begins (June 18). Each candidate will use their
 > Wikimedia account to log in, there is no need to create a new account
 > and password.

For context, the same email gives an option to candidates to answer the questions via email. In this case, the election organizers will post the answers in the forum on their behalf. 


So by opposing this off-wiki forum, I've probably excluded myself from
going any further in this election.

This is the only point of the election process where this forum is being used. It allows affiliates to propose and prioritize their questions quickly, and it allows to open the candidate replies to the public at the same time, automatically translated to the preference to each reader. Candidates can reply via email if they prefer. If a candidate doesn't want to use the forum, they don't have to.

More context. This election process also includes an option for voters to use a voting advice tool that is off-wiki as well. This tool was used in the last MCDC election and received wide support and positive feedback. None of the candidates had any objections, and there were +70. Here too the candidates don't have to use this tool directly if they don't want to.

These specialized tools are easy to use and they provide a benefit to users that right now we cannot replicate with wiki pages alone.


Thanks,
Mike

On 31/5/22 23:35:52, Mike Peel wrote:
>
>  >     There is no on-site privacy policy, it just links to
>  >     wikimediafoundation.org <http://wikimediafoundation.org>?
>  >
>  > See this pinned topic:
>  >
>  > User privacy considerations in this forum
>  >
> https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/user-privacy-considerations-in-this-forum/55
> <https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/user-privacy-considerations-in-this-forum/55>
>
>
> So this does not follow the WMF's privacy policy at:
> https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy
>
> You didn't answer this.
>
> On 31/5/22 23:25:04, Quim Gil wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 1, 2022 at 12:17 AM Mike Peel <email@mikepeel.net
>> <mailto:email@mikepeel.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     This is not a community review - this is an off-wiki discussion.
>>
>>
>> Participation is also welcome here:
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Forum/Proposal
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Forum/Proposal>
>
> Every single link under "Community review questions" goes to your new
> website. You state that "The Movement Strategy Forum is based on
> Discourse, a powerful open-source platform for community discussions." .
> I thought that's what MediaWiki was?
>
>>
>>      > It's a Discourse instance. https://discourse.org
>>     <https://discourse.org> <https://discourse.org
>> <https://discourse.org>>
>>      > is an open-source platform specializing in community
>> conversations.
>>     That's $100/month for a standard subscription. per
>>     https://www.discourse.org/pricing
>> <https://www.discourse.org/pricing>.
>>
>>
>> This is for those who want to have their site hosted by the Discourse
>> maintainers, which is an option we have taken for now. Discourse is
>> free software.
>
> So WMF is paying Discourse to hold community discussions that would
> normally be held on MediaWiki? Huh?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
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