NavouWiki wrote:
Can it be clarified as to the status of the Right to
Vanish on WMF and local
projects. Is this a right given by WMF in goodwill?
Related link
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Right_to_vanish
Thank you,
Mercury
In short, no, and please ignore everything on that page.
"Right to vanish" is a term that predates the Wikimedia projects. That
Meta page originates from
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?RightToVanish -- read that, first,
if you have not already done so. It's not a "right" in the sense that
you appear to think it is.
Asking if has been "given by the Wikimedia Foundation" is to me a
meaningless question. If someone decides to leave a project the issue of
what, if anything, happens is entirely an internal matter for that
project. There should be no need nor desire for the Foundation to get
involved, and for it to do so would seem to me to be exactly the sort of
interference with individual projects that they aren't meant to do.
All that official-sounding garbage on the Meta page has just been added
over time; most of it is complete nonsense, and should be ignored. The
sentence "the Right to Vanish is made available by goodwill of the
Foundation" is utter rubbish, and whoever added it had no idea what they
were talking about. The rest of the information on that page is dubious
at best. For example, point 2 under "Alternative measures" has led to
blocks on the English Wikipedia on the rare occasions that someone has
been foolish enough to actually try it.
-Gurch