Hello, all.
First, I’m sorry for not doing a better job introducing myself last time. (I was told I should have done that.) I am Maggie Dennis. Currently I am the Vice President of Community Resilience & Sustainability under the General Counsel of the Foundation. I’ve been with the Foundation for 9 years in various roles, but always connected to the group who now conduct Trust & Safety in one form or another. I am also a volunteer, Moonriddengirl, primarily on English Wikipedia, although I am so much diminished in my volunteering that it embarrasses me to point it out.
This office hour is still scheduled for 18:00 UTC June 4th. I will be on camera, and it will be livestreamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGRXVx5EeCk
We will post notes from the meeting, with the identity of question-askers anonymized, afterward. Questions can be submitted on Telegram [1], on IRC [2] or in the YouTube Chat or by email in advance to answers@wikimedia.org (To make sure they are presented during this meeting, please use “Trust & Safety” as the subject line.)
I want to invite people to join me in the Zoom call itself as well. I’d much rather be talking to people than nervously answering anonymous questions. Since I’m told that there are security issues with publishing the link, we’ll be sharing the link with interested individuals as the meeting begins. If you want the link to get in, please ask for it at answers@wikimedia.org, at least an hour in advance of the meeting’s start (again, with “Trust & Safety” as the subject line). The link will be sent out via email during the hour before the meeting.
If you are in Zoom, of course, and on camera or speaking out loud, people who watch the stream will see you, so if you prefer more anonymity Telegram or IRC may be more comfortable for you.
Best,
Maggie [3]
P.S. NewYorkBrad, colon added. :D 18:00. I was typing it the way my dad always said it out loud. That said, I get stagefright and thus wouldn't be at all unhappy to have finished this over 200 years ago. :)
[1] https://t.me/joinchat/DOlGIB1FRLUWqW9iB3qfTQ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#How_to_participate [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mdennis_(WMF)
On Thu, May 28, 2020 at 7:59 AM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello, all.
With the Board’s recent statement, this seems like a good time to launch the quarterly office hours I’ve been wanting to create for people who want to talk to me about issues involving “community resilience and sustainability,” including the work of Trust & Safety, whom I oversee. (after months of wanting to do this I’ve come to realize that I will always be "too busy" to feel like it's the perfect time for this. So I’m going to do it now anyway!)
There’ve been requests to make office hours more personal, so I will host a Zoom hangout where people can join me, but I'll also take questions from Telegram and IRC.[1] I know that finding an hour that works for everybody is not going to happen, and I know from past office hours I’ve been involved in that I may get far more questions than I can answer (or, contrarily, nothing at all :)). Nevertheless, I will do my best to answer questions posed to me in that hour by Wikimedians in good standing (not Foundation or community banned) and to follow up in writing with any I don’t have time for over the next few days or week or so, time allowing. I might aggregate similar questions into a kind of FAQ. We’ll publish notes, anonymizing those who’ve asked questions, after.
I do, however, have the following caveats:
I can’t and won’t discuss specific Trust & Safety cases. Instead, I can discuss Trust & Safety protocols and practices and approaches as well as some of the mistakes we’ve made, some of the things I’m proud of, and some of the things we’re hoping to do.
I will not respond to comments or questions that are disrespectful to me, to my colleagues, or to anyone in our communities. I can talk civilly about our work even if you disagree with me or I disagree with you. I won’t compromise on this.
I’m not sure if I will stick with Zoom as the way I do office hours forever, but I am responding to some requests for spoken interaction while also trying to provide text options for those who prefer. I admit to being a little camera shy myself, so this is a challenge for me! If I embarrass myself too badly, I may retreat to the safety of text in future.
I was hoping to have the Zoom link already, but while that’s being expedited by our office technology team, I don’t have it yet. I wanted to give interested people notice as soon as I knew the time. I’ll follow up with links again at least two hours in advance.
The meeting will be on June 4th at 1800 UTC.
I hope to see you there.
Best,
Maggie
[1] Zoom link; Telegram link: https://t.me/joinchat/DOlGIB1FRLUWqW9iB3qfTQ; directions for participating in IRC: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#How_to_participate
-- Maggie Dennis Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.