Hello Pine,
On Wed, 22 Jan 2020 at 08:06, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Aron,
Some of your comments remind me of arguments that I heard from WMF around the time that the WMF Board decided to let Lila have her way with Superprotect. WMF's solution to various question about who should make decisions and whether diverse needs were being adequately addressed was to put itself in charge.
My knowledge about Superprotect is khm... superficial (no pun intended), from recollections and some randomly read discussions, but you made me interested to deepen my knowledge. Could you reference the arguments that you were reminded of, together with my specific comments that you associated with it, so I can better understand your comment?
Regarding my comments: these are original thoughts based on researching policies and guidelines, the actual application of those, user feedback from editors (present and former) and impressions from readers. The extent of my research pales in comparison to those made by the WMF, therefore I focus on topics where I've acquired enough knowledge that my opinion and vision have taken form. Superprotect is not one of those topics, but maybe one day it will be.
I'm curious. How do you think that all-Wikiverse governance should be done? This is a complex topic. You partially addressed this in your previous email, and I would like to hear more, particularly regarding governance structures, representation, and methods for creating all-Wikiverse policies and budgets.
Thank you for asking. I'm happy (this week ;-) that someone shows an interest in these discussions. My hope is that there will be a global project for volunteers motivated in researching and improving the efficiency of governance practices, creating recommendations in cooperation with the WMF. Similar to the working groups - if you wish -, with significantly more volunteer participation and a focus on implementation details, not high-level concepts.
My interest is more localized than what you expect as I'm not interested in questions of high-level governance of the all-Wikiverse such as budgets, representation, and global structures. The devil is in the details, that's where my focus is: I believe *how* we implement the Medium-term plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019 will determine which targets are met. I've experienced the need to meet some of those targets and understand others' need for the rest. I wish to put my 2 cents into the implementation.
In this spirit, I've advocated for transparency and cooperation between the communities and the WMF in the office actions consultation which you can read here https://xtools.wmflabs.org/topedits/meta.wikimedia.org/Aron_Manning/1/Talk:Office%20actions/Community%20consultation%20on%20partial%20and%20temporary%20office%20actions/09%202019 (in chronological order) and drafted a design proposal https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aron_Manning/Design/Reporting_tool for the planned User reporting system https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_health_initiative/User_reporting_system_consultation_2019 that yet again focuses on transparency while giving privacy to the reporter in the initial stages (before a report is evaluated) and making it technically possible to include limited non-public evidence. I would be delighted if you would share your thoughts on the discussion page.
Aron