On 4/9/16, Brill Lyle <wp.brilllyle(a)gmail.com> wrote:
One thing Wikimedia seems to do quite well is torture
people who want to
contribute by rules and policies that I think, quite frankly, are
unworkable.
That is so true, and I am reminded by a remarkably curious incident
today regarding the disclosed Conflict of Interest editing by the
legal firm of Carter-Ruck representing a high profile financier of
global terrorism (per Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yassin_Kadi#Outstanding_Edit_Requests
A member of the article subject's international coordinating legal
team based in London, Carter-Ruck, had repeatedly "threatened" to make
live edits to his client's article, and has just made a series of
controversial changes to his client's article on Wikipedia after
community editors were unwilling to accommodate his tendentious (and
poorly sourced) demands.
However, and strangely, the editor who reverted this lawyer's
vandalism to uphold site policy was instead immediately indefinitely
blocked by Risker. The blocked editor had also approached an ARBCOM
member seeking guidance on dealing with the situation.
Is it therefore now the official Wikimedia / ARBCOM policy that
conflicted editors and especially lawyers editing on behalf of their
(global terrorist sponsor) clients are preferred over community
editors throughout the Wikimedia publishing empire ?
Can we get a full explanation from the Arbs involved in this block
citing the WMF / community policies they applied ?
Toby
On 4/9/16, Brill Lyle <wp.brilllyle(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I find this issue of Conflict of Interest exceedingly problematic.
>
> Almost every person working and living today will have a conflict of
> interest somehow, especially as one becomes a contributor to any of the
> Wikimedia projects, gets to know people, tries to organize events or
> promote the value of Wikipedia, Wikimedia, etc. Or if you work in any field
> that specializes in anything online or technical. It is an impossible
> situation.
>
> I think that Wikimedia deals with this very badly -- and obviously at great
> personal cost to talented, giving people. I am sorry.
>
> And to the bigger problem: Wikimedia loses a smart person who has loads of
> ideas and expertise -- and is a contributor to Wikidata (one of the best &
> most exciting projects to be visited upon Wikimedia) because of this arcane
> and quite frankly needing to be re-evaluated rule? I see this as one of the
> many problems of Wikimedia.
>
> EVERYONE has conflict of interest. We need the smartest and brightest minds
> out there to contribute whatever they willingly can and will do on a
> volunteer basis. How can they not have connections to the real world as
> well as to online? Do we expect volunteers to be in their bunkers
> somewhere, siloed from the world, that these clean folks are the ones to
> move Wikimedia forward? It's laughable.
>
One thing Wikimedia seems to do quite well is torture
people who want to
contribute by rules and policies that I think, quite frankly, are
unworkable.
>
> Requiring some sort of absolute clean Conflict of Interest is an impossible
> ideal. It is also obviously hurting the community.
>
> There is much change happening. I think it's an opportunity for newbies
> such as myself as well as folks with longer views to make things better. Or
> these mistakes will continue to plague the Wikimedia community -- and we
> will all lose out.
>
> - Erika
> *Erika Herzog*
> Wikipedia *User:BrillLyle* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BrillLyle>
>
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