Like others who have commented here, I was required to prove I was of age with legal ID before accessing OTRS. Were the claim that people _used to be_ lax, I would believe it. To claim they have become lax just seems silly. Part of Sue's remit has been to reduce informality and make processes like this a casual, but required, formality. It should not be a big deal for people who are prepared to take on roles like this and CheckUser to get them. Part and parcel of that is that the office does not turn it into as much of an ordeal as getting a NATO security clearance. The key thing is proving you are old enough to be legally responsible for your actions. To start with, you will not get to the position of being asked that unless you have - online - proven you act mature enough to take responsibility for your actions.
Those who would criticise how the whole thing works would do well to look at the social structure, and to stop looking for the cabals. Wikimedia projects are meritocracies, and administrators as young as fourteen can end up taking the decision to block the entire U.S. Congress from editing Wikipedia. If their reasoning is sound, they will be backed up. To get to that position they've been through a trial of fire and proven themselves mature beyond their years. When they can prove they've hit the right age, they'll get access to the stuff that the privacy policy covers.
I have neither seen, nor heard, anything to contradict this being the way things are run. Neither Wikipedia Review or Kelly Martin should be considered credible sources.
Brian McNeil
-----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Phil Nash Sent: 29 June 2008 21:26 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] identity disclosure and access to OTRS/Checkuser
Philippe Beaudette wrote:
On Jun 25, 2008, at 2:45 PM, Mike Godwin wrote:
I don't know what Kelly is referring to here. Cary doesn't make exceptions, routinely or otherwise, to the identification policy. Greg's experience is the norm, and it has been since I came on at the Foundation a year ago (one-year anniversary coming up in July!).
--Mike
In my situation, a good chunk of the WMF staff knows me pretty well, I'm spent a (not insignificant) amount of time in their offices, and been through some fairly thorough questioning on various topics. And yet, when I needed access to private information for the board elections, Cary - who can pick me out of a lineup and knows me reasonably well, I think - asked to see my driver's license.
My gut feel and personal experience says that the policy is being enforced fairly stringently.
Philippe
To me it seems no more than exercising due diligence; I for one would prefer
personal data to be overprotected than underprotected, and it seems indicative of the amount of care taken. That could be critical in litigation.
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