On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter
<putevod(a)mccme.ru>wrote;wrote:
On Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:19:59 +0300, Dan Rosenthal
wrote:
I too have to say that while I agree with a
narrowing focus, I disagree
with the tabling of Fellowships. Not only have they brought a lot of great
talent into the foundation (as I saw when I worked there, as well as
after), but more than anything the WMF is an agent of disruptive
innovation, and I feel strongly that encouraging Fellows to explore things
that might not be viable for the rest of the staff (whether due to
resources or interest) serves that innovation, and thus the foundation
itself. I believe at one point there was a Fellow working on studying ways
to improve en.wp's internal governance. After witnessing the utter debacle
that is going on in the clarifications on Malleus' ban, I'm more convinced
than ever that such a review is critical and that the WMF should actually
be devoting MORE resources to this. Editor engagement comes not just
through things like Visual Editor (which is awesome), but also creating a
conducive environment for new editors from a policy standpoint. I'm afraid
we're going to lose that in a narrowing focus.
Dan Rosenthal
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Hi Dan,
whereas I can agree or disagree with you on your points, I fail to see the
connection to the Malleus's ban debate. Could you please elaborate? I am
not sure I would like to see WMF involved there, if this is your point
(probably not).
Cheers
Yaroslav
on 10/21/12 5:29 PM, Dan Rosenthal at swatjester(a)gmail.com wrote:
The connection is that it is an example of the significantly more
negative/hostile environment and failure of en.wp's governance structure
that harms editor retention; this is something that could have been studied
and reported on by the Fellowship program. Basically, it's a specific
example of a broader problem that would be perfect for Fellows to look at,
were the program to continue. I was not advocating that the WMF be involved
in Malleus's specific debate.
While I agree completely with what you say, Dan, I think it would be a good
idea to start the discussion with a coherent definition and/or description
of the English Wikipedia's "governance structure".
And, a discussion of the work environment of the Project is very much worth
it's own thread.
Marc Riddell