Thomas Dalton writes:
- Still too long and rambling. It's clearly written with the
intention of educating users about privacy on Wikimedia projects, rather than primarily as a binding policy on WMF, yet no user is ever going to read it.
I don't think education is exclusive as binding policy. Any policy we publish is going to have a binding effect, to the extent that people rely on our representations about what we do. That's why we have taken the pains to make the policy match our actual practice as completely as possible.
As to whether users will read it from beginning to end -- well, I assume most won't. But some users -- the kind most interested in privacy policies -- will. And so the idea was to prepare something that's holistic and integrated for those users, but that also functions as a reference for those who only want to find out about a particular topic. Since we're trying to do more than one thing here, the document reads differently than it would if it served only one function (e.g., education).
- Why abbreviate "Wikimedia projects" to "WMProjects"?
This is a fair point.
Pathoschild writes:
That sentence has no verb...
I'm not sure how that happened, but I've fixed that particular problem. Thanks.
--Mike
Mike Godwin mgodwin@wikimedia.org wrote:
As to whether users will read it from beginning to end -- well, I assume most won't.
I think that is a problem. The policy should clearly and concisely lay out the policy and be accessible to most readers (not a small minority), not lengthily explain the philosophy and reasoning behind the policy. That information should be separate from the policy content.
After your original draft I proposed such a separation at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Draft_Privacy_Policy_June_2008#Rewrite, a complete policy-only version linking to a second editable "explanatory material" page. I think this is the ideal solution: we have a binding easy-to-read privacy policy, as well as the lengthy explanatory material properly separated from binding policy and editable by the community.
2008/6/22 Mike Godwin mgodwin@wikimedia.org:
Thomas Dalton writes:
- Still too long and rambling. It's clearly written with the
intention of educating users about privacy on Wikimedia projects, rather than primarily as a binding policy on WMF, yet no user is ever going to read it.
I don't think education is exclusive as binding policy. Any policy we publish is going to have a binding effect, to the extent that people rely on our representations about what we do. That's why we have taken the pains to make the policy match our actual practice as completely as possible.
You'll note, I said "primarily as binding policy". I know it is binding policy now, but that's not its primary function, its primary function is clearly one of education, and that should be changed.
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