Ed Erhart wrote:
I think you're overestimating the importance of this list, which is read by only a small portion of the community. Many people in the wider community have no idea this exists.
Sort of. :-) In absolute numbers, of course the total number of list subscribers/readers is a very small part of the total number of people in the Wikimedia community (whatever that encompasses). But we know from years of experience both in the Wikimedia community and elsewhere that even seemingly large communities often have a weirdly small number of unusually highly active people who make up the "core" (sorry, there's no good term for this). If you do an intersection of _that_ group to wikimedia-l's readers, the gap would be markedly narrower, I think.
Or put another way: in terms of general communication paths to Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members past and present, Wikimedia Foundation staff past and present, and other longtime Wikimedians, this list (né[e] foundation-l) has been the de facto medium for a decade.
This is not to say, for example, that lots of highly active wiki editors are all subscribed here. People who spend a lot of time reverting vandalism may not care to have this feed in their inbox. But the opt-in, open, and public nature of this list is such that people who are (overly!) involved with Wikimedia are quite often subscribed.
MZMcBride