This seems limited to messages on individuals' user pages, saying that
they personally will be donating to "Amical" rather than WMF. I don't
think the Foundation should step in on this unless the site notice or
a community page is being messed with, though some form of
clarification from Amical's leadership would be good. In the meantime
it might be worth removing the Joan Goma banners from rotation for PR
reasons.
Separate from the fundraiser, there may be a problem with their use of
"viquimedia" if it hasn't been approved by the Foundation, and action
should be taken to sort this out.
Pete / the wub
On 7 December 2010 06:39, Ernesto García <wbibliotecario(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Seeing
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics I'm quite worried
about the onlook.. choosing "year to date" tab shows a definite deacceleration
(and we still need about 4x the current cumulative amount).
Therefore I'm particularly concerned about an ongoing campaign on catalan wikipedia
asking to NOT donate to wikimedia (and instead give money to their own association).
Here is the
campaign:http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usuari:Martorell&old…
http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usuari:Mafoso&oldid=6410669
http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usuari:Vriullop&oldid=6331931
It basically says "I want to donate, but I wont donate to Wikimedia, instead I will
donate to Amical. My donation will be appreciated and well used. Sorry Jimbo, but I need
to think locally"
Now who are these users? These are cawiki sysops campaining about not donating in the
very worst timing, and in the very worst circumstances (fundarising is getting short).
Now.. what is Amical?
Amical is NOT a wikimedia chapter. It's an non profit association of wikimedians with
aims to becoming a chapter
REF1:
http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:Associaci%C3%B3
And if you follow the external link, you see that for example, Martorell above is member
of its board:
REF2:
http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Junta (notice they present themselves, in domain
and logo as "viquimedia " (localized spelling) and not as "Amical"
(yet they haven't been approved as chaper)
Now, these days a banner across wikis from the president of Amical (and appointed
president of the non-yet-approved WM:CAT (REF3) Joan Gomà) is replacing Jimbo's in
asking for donations
REF3:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_in_Catalan/ca#Junta
I see a conflict of interests. Amical people (including a board member) is promoting NOT
to donate to Wikimedia and instead give to their association, while its president says
otherwise.
Notwhistanding the use of a WP userpage for propaganda (campaigning for money to a non WM
organization), and giving my concern about the fundraising going slower I feel I need to
point out this campaign so it is publicly known.
...................Now.. why would members of an association whose objective is to
support Wikimedia would be torpedoing the fundraiser?
Notice the diff dates (mid november).
Here's the context: there's a nationalist conflict regarding Catalunya status in
Spain (they want to separate).
Not directly related, but influenced by this, there has been friction over the past
months about the proposals of Wikimedia CAT and Wikimedia ES.
WM:CAT gets rejected
REF:
http://lists.wikimedia.org.ar/pipermail/wikimedia-es/2010-November/002097.h…
(november 5)Quote:"Catalan Group has been rejected by the chapters committee. There
is nosuch thing as Wikimedia Catala.
Cheers, Delphine"
And then attacks on Delphine start REF:
http://lists.wikimedia.org.ar/pipermail/wikimedia-es/2010-November/002120.h… (november
13)
"Delphine, as always, boicoting the cooperation between Catalans and the rest of the
world.Now it seems she is also against cooperation with iberoamerica."
Notice "Marc Fontevila" is User:Mafoso (as signature shows)
AlsoREF:
http://lists.wikimedia.org.ar/pipermail/wikimedia-es/2010-November/002181.h…
(nov 16)
Next day, the banners boycotting the fundraiser appear on the Amical supporter pages.
(Nov 17)Notice the wording about lack of
transparencyhttp://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usuari:Vriullop&o…
A few day latters, it's crosswiki posted a request on meta with biased wording about
transparency againBut it's very soon found that the proposal is ***just another
attempt to further the WMCAT agenda***disguised as "solving a general
problem"http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Chapters._…
catalan sysops have yet spoken pro proposal.
Wording was later changed and sections added to present things differently, but original
wording can be seen
onhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_comment/Chapters…
you don't support, you're against transprency"
Basically, that's the context.
I'm REALLY CONCERNED about this boycott for purely wikipolitics reasons.
Given that Joan Goma is one of the few selected editors appearing on banners requesting
donations, while at the same time the users on the association he's president of
boycott Wikimedia for what seems a grudge, this has been up for several weeks, I think at
least Amical as association (or Goma as president) should step forward and help clear
things.
It's not acceptable an association who claims to support Wikimedia is boycotting it.
Sorry Jimbo, but as they say on their campaing: they have to thing first to themselves
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=es&ie=UTF-8&s…
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