Dear Maggie (& everyone)
Thank you for this email. I really feel that you should not have had to write this. I feel
that the personal reference in an earlier mail (on this thread) to Maria and her partner
was inappropriate and detracted from the discussion. But thank you for taking the
opportunity to share the facts as you know them.
Again: this is hard… we as a movement are in a tough spot with regards to next steps.
There are individuals involved (volunteers and staff) whom I not only respect but also
sympathise with. And whatever our next steps are people have been hurt and could be
damaged even more.
I have stated my opinion… and the Dutch have a saying which sums this up nicely: “beter
ten halve gekeerd dan ten hele gedwaald” which roughly translated to “better to turn back
halfway than having completed the journey ending up being lost"
But whatever the outcome, let us try to limit the personal attacks and minimise the damage
to everyone involved.
Regards
Jan-Bart de Vreede
(Again: my personal opinion)
On 27 Jun 2021, at 19:41, Maggie Dennis
<mdennis(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi, everybody.
It’s Sunday, and there’s a lot of meetings today, and I wrestled with whether to say this
without necessarily having the full time to think about all the ways I could say it wrong
and potentially make misunderstandings worse. We’re having a meeting on Tuesday
specifically to discuss issues of concern to people around this consultancy. But I’d like
to openly address the suggestion that María may have influenced a Trust & Safety case
here.
First: it is against policy (and it is a policy I helped write and support
whole-heartedly) to talk about the specifics of Trust & Safety behavioral
investigations in public in order as much as possible to protect the privacy and dignity
of all involved. Public in this case includes even among staff, most of whom have no need
to know when a case is even under review. We do discuss these cases with some volunteer
groups who have signed non-disclosure agreements, but even that is limited. Only recently
have we created a body who can review Trust & Safety case files on appropriate appeal.
Given this policy, I’m going to have to be uncomfortably vague, but I want to address and
firmly deny rumors that any Board member has ever attempted to influence Trust &
Safety (T&S) to take office action (including warnings) in relation to any behavioral
investigation. (See the Meta page, which includes a list of the individuals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Ban_Policy>.) I know that my saying so
isn’t necessarily going to reassure folks. Some may think I’m deluded, and some may think
I’m lying, but for me silence on this point is unacceptable.
Neither María nor any other trustee ever exerted any influence over any Trust &
Safety case. The Board does not provide guidance on how cases should be handled unless
asked (which is rare). Even executive staff do not weigh in on Trust & Safety
recommended approaches until an investigation itself is complete and has been reviewed by
an attorney.
I know this because I’ve been involved in one aspect or another in Trust & Safety’s
behavioral investigations since 2012, when we imposed our first Foundation ban. Over the
years, we have created a process by which behavioral investigations may be launched by
request from anyone; Trust & Safety staff review all requests, no matter who makes it,
to determine if a request is within their mandate. If it is, they open a case.
Speaking candidly, in the 9 years I’ve been involved in this, I have seen bias when
issues touch on treatment of staff members or Board members or those who are close to
them. But it is a bias against taking action that might make it look like the Foundation
is trying to silence legitimate criticism. Those of you who handle behavioral issues on
our projects are very aware that “trolls” are not our major problem. People who are
hostile with no reason are easily taken care of. The problem is when people who go on the
attack may have reason (even if only partial) to be unhappy. It’s hard to address the way
people approach problems independently of those problems. It’s hard to say “You have a
point, but you can’t handle it that way” without some people seeing you as trying to avoid
the point. But there are some approaches to problems that are unacceptable. Staff, Board
members, and those who are close to them deserve reasonable protection, too.
The involvement of anyone close to María in a behavioral investigation has only been
speculation by some in community. That makes it questionable for me to say this, but I
think it’s important to say: it is true that one of the several people who reached out
with concerns about Fram had a connection to a member of the Board. This did have an
impact on the case. The impact it had was that Fram was given two warnings (about a year
apart) before we took office action instead of the more common one. (Fram has acknowledged
receiving warnings
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_response_to_the_Wikimedia_Foundation%27s_ban_of_Fram>,
otherwise I would feel very uncomfortable noting this myself.)
Whether consulting with María at this moment and in this way is appropriate or not is a
discussion we will have on Tuesday. However, it disturbs me to know that some people claim
María acted inappropriately in regards to a Trust & Safety case when I know better.
Granted, I was on leave when the final office action was enacted, but I was not on leave
in the months and years that preceded it and was not unaware of the discussions
surrounding that case. I wouldn’t feel very good about myself as a person if I didn’t push
back on that misimpression of her behavior in that case and explain that (I fully and
honestly believe) any bias goes the other way.
As uncomfortable as it will make me, I will not respond to other questions about this
case in this venue, with this audience, although (as always) I am happy to talk about
Trust & Safety’s general approach with people and will do so at other opportunities.
Best regards,
Maggie
--
Maggie Dennis
She/her/hers
Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org