Hello rubin16 and all,
I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or US laws on Russia.
We are a diverse, global movement that spans the world, and we exist mostly online. However, our work takes place in the physical world, and each country has its own unique operating environment. At the WMF, we are constantly assessing what this means for the work of the movement.
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff
On 13.11.2014 21:08, Geoff Brigham wrote:
Hello rubin16 and all,
...
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
thanks for your clarification.
As I guess everybody on this list knows, I am not a fan of Wikimedia Russia to put it mildly. I kind of understand why you did not want to give an advance notice. But I have difficulties understanding why you did not notify them AFTER you stopped accepting donations from Russia, so that they learn about it from a random posting at the third-party website.
Cheers Yaroslav
Hi geoff, would it be an option to just link to the Russian chapter's page for donations?
Rupert On Nov 13, 2014 9:08 PM, "Geoff Brigham" gbrigham@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello rubin16 and all,
I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or US laws on Russia.
We are a diverse, global movement that spans the world, and we exist mostly online. However, our work takes place in the physical world, and each country has its own unique operating environment. At the WMF, we are constantly assessing what this means for the work of the movement.
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi, Geoff!
Thank you for your answer.
The main question remains the same: what particular local legislature are you considering as a risk at the moment? Probably, we can help you in its assessment from our local view or we can start our work on some amendments to our laws so that the issue will be somehow solved in the future (we already have some successful experience in it, for example - < http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/17/wikimedia-ru-changes-russian-civil-code...
).
I do understand that you are in the process of the assessment of current situation, we are not asking you for final decisions or conclusions, and I am not going to put WMF in charge of the preliminary thoughts shown. At least we would be happy to hear the reason of the fundraising stopped yesterday (or some days ago) but not a month ago/a year ago: we have difficult legislature, it's not to easy to work for us, but this is a permanent situation. There were no significant legislature updates in the recent time that we are aware of, that's why we still don't understand what could change you assessment.
Best regards, Linar
2014-11-13 23:08 GMT+03:00 Geoff Brigham gbrigham@wikimedia.org:
Hello rubin16 and all,
I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or US laws on Russia.
We are a diverse, global movement that spans the world, and we exist mostly online. However, our work takes place in the physical world, and each country has its own unique operating environment. At the WMF, we are constantly assessing what this means for the work of the movement.
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for the explanation - much clearer to me now! I can understand it is not always possible to give advance notice - I'm mainly suggesting to give notice when possible (even afterwards) to the people who may have to face the journalists/angry donors. The level of detail you describe above seems to go a long way in that.
Best, Lodewijk
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 9:08 PM, Geoff Brigham gbrigham@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello rubin16 and all,
I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or US laws on Russia.
We are a diverse, global movement that spans the world, and we exist mostly online. However, our work takes place in the physical world, and each country has its own unique operating environment. At the WMF, we are constantly assessing what this means for the work of the movement.
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
| -----Original Message----- | From: wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimedia-l- | bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Brigham | Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2014 9:08 PM / | Hello rubin16 and all, | | I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit | fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or | US laws on Russia. ...
Geoff, I do not share the satisfaction towards your above statement.
The more words, the less clarity. The less respect for others. The more you deny something the more it is likely.
We, me have not received answers to few simple questions. Instead, we received strenuous ensure that this is not a political issue, that matters are under consideration, that this will not have any impact, and so on and so on. That is why I personally believe that this is a political issue. Or ... but never mind, I do not want to offend anyone.
And not as the opposite, but great respect and thanks for Rubin's efforts to disclose this mysterious issue.
Regards, Janusz "Ency" Dorożyński
All --
We do and will continue to defend the freedom knowledge and autonomy of our sites in every corner of the world.
Due to rapidly changing circumstances in some areas, occasionally we have to put holds on some activities. Currently we have a hold on fundraising in Russia while we figure out the changing legal landscape. This is fairly standard process that we go through many times throughout the year with multiple regions. We are working as fast as we can towards solving this or creating an acceptable work-around. We would appreciate your help and support through this process.
Thank you, Lila
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Dorożyński Janusz (4-webd) < dorozynskij@wampnm.webd.pl> wrote:
| -----Original Message----- | From: wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimedia-l- | bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Brigham | Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2014 9:08 PM / | Hello rubin16 and all, | | I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit | fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or | US laws on Russia. ...
Geoff, I do not share the satisfaction towards your above statement.
The more words, the less clarity. The less respect for others. The more you deny something the more it is likely.
We, me have not received answers to few simple questions. Instead, we received strenuous ensure that this is not a political issue, that matters are under consideration, that this will not have any impact, and so on and so on. That is why I personally believe that this is a political issue. Or ... but never mind, I do not want to offend anyone.
And not as the opposite, but great respect and thanks for Rubin's efforts to disclose this mysterious issue.
Regards, Janusz "Ency" Dorożyński
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
| -----Original Message----- | From: wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimedia-l- | bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Lila Tretikov | Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 1:44 AM / | We do and will continue to defend the freedom knowledge and autonomy of | our sites in every corner of the world. | | Due to rapidly changing circumstances in some areas, occasionally we have to | put holds on some activities. Currently we have a hold on fundraising in | Russia while we figure out the changing legal landscape. This is fairly standard | process that we go through many times throughout the year with multiple | regions. We are working as fast as we can towards solving this or creating an | acceptable work-around. We would appreciate your help and support | through this process.
Lila, thanks for your involvement.
Your message is short and sounds better than other recent. I find it improves trust for you all.
Really, we want help and we can help, especially locals, i.e. Russian folks.
But we need a specific, short and factual information about the changing legal landscape in Russia, if any happened. Without that we are as blind man's in the mist. Let us know the information. Or let Rubin (who is knocking and knocking), if that information is classified, however I can't figure any reason to act as people of every secret service.
Best regards, Janusz "Ency" Dorożyński
Dorożyński Janusz, 14/11/2014 14:59:
Really, we want help and we can help, especially locals, i.e. Russian folks.
Too late? It seems the Russian government immediately seized the opportunity of a weaker position of Wikipedia in the public opinion. (You probably already saw, but anyway.) http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/us-russia-wikipedia-alternative-idI...
They have a habit of sanctions and counter-sanctions by now...
Nemo
That's not the first, and even not the 10th attempt of our authorities to create own Wikipedia, own YouTube and so on.
They will talk about it, they could even spend some budget but it's not likely to result in something that will be sustainable and popular.
PS: I really believed that we will see some sufficient comment from WMF about particular reasons, local laws changed that caused such block of fundraising, etc. but my trust in WMF is leaving me from day to day. I am really disappointed that WMF puts some own interests as a priority and ignores questions from the local community of not the smallest project - Russian Wikipedia.
Imagine that such user as me who is the oldest 'crat of ru.wiki, has long history of contribution to local and global Wikimedia activities, already doesn't believe that it was a justified and reasonable decision and not political action by WMF. And now imagine what new or inexperienced readers and editors in Russia should think when they hear about such an unfriendly action from company based in the USA, the country we have not perfect relations with at the moment
I am tired of knocking to the closed door, so, let it be as it is, I don't care about it anymore: we have local activities, we have sensible editors (not only in ru.wiki but also in other projects as comments to this mailing list have shown), so, we should work for the overall idea despite some existing inefficiencies like WMF. 14 нояб. 2014 г. 23:31 пользователь "Federico Leva (Nemo)" < nemowiki@gmail.com> написал:
Dorożyński Janusz, 14/11/2014 14:59:
Really, we want help and we can help, especially locals, i.e. Russian folks.
Too late? It seems the Russian government immediately seized the opportunity of a weaker position of Wikipedia in the public opinion. (You probably already saw, but anyway.) http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/us-russia-wikipedia-alternative- idINKCN0IY1YT20141114
They have a habit of sanctions and counter-sanctions by now...
Nemo
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi all,
what Rubin says I think is that when the decision was made, WMF did not notify WM RU.
The complete lack of communication.
NOT what was discussed above; that was a complete misunderstanding of his words.
What Rubin says in my reading is that once WMF made the decision, they should have
1) analyze what questions and reaction will it generate and identify in which community(-ies) 2) prepare taylor-made answers for the expected and a reply strategy with clear guidelines for the unexpected questions (even better: a press-release) 3) notify the affected (WMRU) about the decision, prepare them for the situation, give them the questions and teach them the answers and the reply strategy (and probably do the same with other closely knit communities, like WM UKR) and/or give them the press release 4) only then execute the decision and close the Russian donation channels.
this is imo a pretty clear and reasonable request. Not to say very common act at large international companies when they for example close a factory somewhere.
Balázs 2014.11.14. 22:01, "rubin.happy" rubin.happy@gmail.com ezt írta:
That's not the first, and even not the 10th attempt of our authorities to create own Wikipedia, own YouTube and so on.
They will talk about it, they could even spend some budget but it's not likely to result in something that will be sustainable and popular.
PS: I really believed that we will see some sufficient comment from WMF about particular reasons, local laws changed that caused such block of fundraising, etc. but my trust in WMF is leaving me from day to day. I am really disappointed that WMF puts some own interests as a priority and ignores questions from the local community of not the smallest project - Russian Wikipedia.
Imagine that such user as me who is the oldest 'crat of ru.wiki, has long history of contribution to local and global Wikimedia activities, already doesn't believe that it was a justified and reasonable decision and not political action by WMF. And now imagine what new or inexperienced readers and editors in Russia should think when they hear about such an unfriendly action from company based in the USA, the country we have not perfect relations with at the moment
I am tired of knocking to the closed door, so, let it be as it is, I don't care about it anymore: we have local activities, we have sensible editors (not only in ru.wiki but also in other projects as comments to this mailing list have shown), so, we should work for the overall idea despite some existing inefficiencies like WMF. 14 нояб. 2014 г. 23:31 пользователь "Federico Leva (Nemo)" < nemowiki@gmail.com> написал:
Dorożyński Janusz, 14/11/2014 14:59:
Really, we want help and we can help, especially locals, i.e. Russian folks.
Too late? It seems the Russian government immediately seized the opportunity of a weaker position of Wikipedia in the public opinion. (You probably already saw, but anyway.)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/us-russia-wikipedia-alternative-
idINKCN0IY1YT20141114
They have a habit of sanctions and counter-sanctions by now...
Nemo
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On Nov 14, 2014 10:00 PM, "rubin.happy" rubin.happy@gmail.com wrote:
That's not the first, and even not the 10th attempt of our authorities to create own Wikipedia, own YouTube and so on.
They will talk about it, they could even spend some budget but it's not likely to result in something that will be sustainable and popular.
If you try something enough of times, while learning from your previous mistakes, you will eventually succeed. That's something which state bureaucracies know, while we didn't learn yet.
There are numerous projects existing in the wild, which cover particular topic better than Wikipedia. The only larger encyclopedia in specific language is the Chinese one (Baidu's one, if I remember well).
I could list a number of Wikipedia language editions, which could be easily become irrelevant with not that much of money and decent organization. Among them, there is at least one very large language (though, not Russian; though, Russian authorities are capable to put much more resources into the project).
Keep in mind that what is important to us is not important to the vast majority of intellectual elites all over the world. Most importantly, free license.
If Russian authorities create a framework which would reasonably cover the issue of free accessibility, it would be practically the same for Russian (and not just Russian) scholars willing to share their knowledge. If you add over that a kind of stricter hierarchical approach to publishing materials, scholars would actually prefer that encyclopedia instead of Wikipedia.
And if that becomes a successful model, we'd lose other projects, one by one. At some point of time it wouldn't be a matter of global politics anymore, but our model would become obsolete.
They won't get their own movement, but we will lose our own. Except if we realize that we are dealing *now* with the future of our existence and start working on that as soon as possible, as better as we know.
Update: now we have something about 2 weeks without explanations and without fundraising in Russia. WMF, are you still with us? :)
Linar
2014-11-16 13:36 GMT+03:00 Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com:
On Nov 14, 2014 10:00 PM, "rubin.happy" rubin.happy@gmail.com wrote:
That's not the first, and even not the 10th attempt of our authorities to create own Wikipedia, own YouTube and so on.
They will talk about it, they could even spend some budget but it's not likely to result in something that will be sustainable and popular.
If you try something enough of times, while learning from your previous mistakes, you will eventually succeed. That's something which state bureaucracies know, while we didn't learn yet.
There are numerous projects existing in the wild, which cover particular topic better than Wikipedia. The only larger encyclopedia in specific language is the Chinese one (Baidu's one, if I remember well).
I could list a number of Wikipedia language editions, which could be easily become irrelevant with not that much of money and decent organization. Among them, there is at least one very large language (though, not Russian; though, Russian authorities are capable to put much more resources into the project).
Keep in mind that what is important to us is not important to the vast majority of intellectual elites all over the world. Most importantly, free license.
If Russian authorities create a framework which would reasonably cover the issue of free accessibility, it would be practically the same for Russian (and not just Russian) scholars willing to share their knowledge. If you add over that a kind of stricter hierarchical approach to publishing materials, scholars would actually prefer that encyclopedia instead of Wikipedia.
And if that becomes a successful model, we'd lose other projects, one by one. At some point of time it wouldn't be a matter of global politics anymore, but our model would become obsolete.
They won't get their own movement, but we will lose our own. Except if we realize that we are dealing *now* with the future of our existence and start working on that as soon as possible, as better as we know. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Isn't a chapter allowed to run its own banner at the local Wikipedia pointing to the its donnation procedure, I guess adequated to the local legislation?
I guess a sitenotice is not as efficient as the fancy and well planned WMF banner, but that could be a start.
2014-11-28 9:29 GMT-02:00 rubin.happy rubin.happy@gmail.com:
Update: now we have something about 2 weeks without explanations and without fundraising in Russia. WMF, are you still with us? :)
Linar
Geoff (and others from WMF), in the situations like this one is, it is much less important why you did something than how you did something.
Global tensions are high, they could become the past in a year, but we could be the main losers of the present tensions.
We depend on trust of people all over the world that we are doing one extremely important and noble thing.
If you really didn't have any option to direct donors to Wikimedia Russia, just one more sentence inside of the message would change the attitude: "We don't run fundraising in Russia at the moment AND we are working to solve the issue as soon as possible." -- if you give a link toward a blog post where you are explaining what's the problem, even better. That makes the difference.
Everything is fragile now and I am not willing to elaborate the worst-case scenario. The point is that it's not anymore about things which could be solved with a good will gesture inside of the movement. If something starts going wrong, it would be extremely hard to fix it.
So, please (in Serbian, we use "please" just in exceptional situations), be careful. One not well worded message could cost us a lot. On Nov 13, 2014 9:08 PM, "Geoff Brigham" gbrigham@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello rubin16 and all,
I wanted to follow up on Lisa's email. As she said, the decision to limit fundraising in Russia was not a political decision or a response to sanctions or US laws on Russia.
We are a diverse, global movement that spans the world, and we exist mostly online. However, our work takes place in the physical world, and each country has its own unique operating environment. At the WMF, we are constantly assessing what this means for the work of the movement.
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I appreciate the additional questions, but, as these are matters currently under consideration, I'm not in a position to share further right now.
Thank you,
Geoff _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Geoff Brigham wrote:
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
Right, you (or Lisa) could've said these paragraphs on the Wikimedia blog or this mailing list or Meta-Wiki or anywhere really and I think you would've saved yourself trouble. Transparency is an inherent part of Wikimedia and community members appropriately place great value in it.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I have to imagine that you discuss these types of issues among Wikimedia Foundation employees using e-mail. I don't really accept "the need for flexibility and speed at times." You're not faster than e-mail; you can shoot a note to a mailing list. There's even a dedicated fundraiser@lists.wikimedia.org mailing list. :-)
MZMcBride
I do agree with MZMcBride here. I can understand being cautious, and I can understand not having time to put out a detailed message in advance. But I simply cannot understand not being bothered to send off even a brief note after the fact, explaining why. What should have taken all of two minutes to do was not done, with the result of a great deal of needless hassle for our colleagues in Russia. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that at least a notification would be made. A great deal of progress has been made on repairing the difficult relationship between the Foundation and the community, and it would be a shame if that was undone through more moments of carelessness like this one.
Cheers, Craig Franklin
On 14 November 2014 11:16, MZMcBride z@mzmcbride.com wrote:
Geoff Brigham wrote:
In that context, we feel that laws in Russia offer a number of possible interpretations. So, out of an abundance of caution, we are not taking donations from Russia right now. If we feel the situation changes, we'll let people know.
As Lisa also said, this does and will not have any impact at all on how the WMF continues to support the Russian language Wikipedia, and its sister projects. We pool our funding and make our budget decisions independently from the geographical source, if any, of the funding.
Right, you (or Lisa) could've said these paragraphs on the Wikimedia blog or this mailing list or Meta-Wiki or anywhere really and I think you would've saved yourself trouble. Transparency is an inherent part of Wikimedia and community members appropriately place great value in it.
We hear your point on transparency and advance notice, and it is a fair one. That said, sometimes we will need to quickly pause fundraising operations in different places while we gain clarity around how best to operate. We are making numerous decisions every day to respond to a wide variety of issues and considerations. I would like to commit to advance notice, but I don't think that will always be possible given the need for flexibility and speed at times. Nevertheless, I am reflecting on how to better address an issue like this in the future.
I have to imagine that you discuss these types of issues among Wikimedia Foundation employees using e-mail. I don't really accept "the need for flexibility and speed at times." You're not faster than e-mail; you can shoot a note to a mailing list. There's even a dedicated fundraiser@lists.wikimedia.org mailing list. :-)
MZMcBride
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org