Can it be clarified as to the status of the Right to Vanish on WMF and local projects. Is this a right given by WMF in goodwill?
Related link
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Right_to_vanish
Thank you,
Mercury
NavouWiki wrote:
Can it be clarified as to the status of the Right to Vanish on WMF and local projects. Is this a right given by WMF in goodwill?
Related link
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Right_to_vanish
Thank you,
Mercury
In short, no, and please ignore everything on that page.
"Right to vanish" is a term that predates the Wikimedia projects. That Meta page originates from http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?RightToVanish -- read that, first, if you have not already done so. It's not a "right" in the sense that you appear to think it is.
Asking if has been "given by the Wikimedia Foundation" is to me a meaningless question. If someone decides to leave a project the issue of what, if anything, happens is entirely an internal matter for that project. There should be no need nor desire for the Foundation to get involved, and for it to do so would seem to me to be exactly the sort of interference with individual projects that they aren't meant to do.
All that official-sounding garbage on the Meta page has just been added over time; most of it is complete nonsense, and should be ignored. The sentence "the Right to Vanish is made available by goodwill of the Foundation" is utter rubbish, and whoever added it had no idea what they were talking about. The rest of the information on that page is dubious at best. For example, point 2 under "Alternative measures" has led to blocks on the English Wikipedia on the rare occasions that someone has been foolish enough to actually try it.
-Gurch
"Removal of user accounts
Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed (depending on the policies of your local wiki). The Wikimedia Foundation does not guarantee that a name will be changed on request.
Whether specific user information is deleted is dependant on the deletion policies of the project that contains the information." - http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy#User_data
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org