On 11 May 2010 22:48, Stuart West <stuwest(a)gmail.com> wrote:
A lot has happened since my email so here's a
quick follow-up. I hear the
concerns many of you have raised on this list and elsewhere. I feel awful
about them. As Kat said so well, I think there is a big difference between
the principles the Board agreed to in our statement and the actions taken by
Jimmy and others.
Thank you.
I supported the Board statement last week and still
support it. I believe
the presence of materials unambiguously not relevant to our educational
mission is bad for us as it can alienate people (users, potential new
volunteers, educators, others) who we need on our side to accomplish our
mission. I know this is a complex issue. Many people have thought more
about the challenges than I have (please read Greg Maxwell's great email for
some of the history
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/058081.html). I
am trying to catch up. I hoped the Board statement would both encourage the
community to pursue a clean-up drive and also renew community efforts to
resolve the tough policy issues.
Your message still seems to carry an implicit assumption that there
was an actual problem of such magnitude as to warrant such action -
that you regret the effects of the actions, but not the fact of the
drastic action.
There has been *no evidence whatsoever* presented that there was such
a problem with Commons. No-one has presented any such evidence. I'd
have thought they would have by now.
Stu, is there any evidence? Did you, as a Board member, ask for any,
before or after the actions were taken?
Please present the evidence of a problem so serious it was worth the
obvious effects that would result from the action taken.
If you do not have evidence, then you have grievously slandered the
Commons community, and you need to withdraw the slanders in your first
message - in which you decried the gross failings of the Commons
community - sentence by sentence.
You'll know the apology is sufficient when all the people you
condemned come back.
Please, present the evidence the decision was based on.
- d.