Tomasz Ganicz, 14/10/2012 22:36:
2012/10/14 James Heilman:
Thematic organizations have the same amount of
authority over content on
Wikipedia as chapters. To spell this out clearly that means NONE. One
does
not put these sorts of details in a NGOs by laws however this will be
clearly described in the policies once incorporated.
Authority - none - but as the main goal of chapters is just to support
Wikimedia projects and communities as a whole rather without any
direct influence over project's content or rules of the projects,
thematic associations are clearly about the content of projects as
such. If Wikimedia Medicine activity had no any impact over medical
content of Wikipedias there would not have any sense to have such
organization :-)
By the way that's also the point of the discussion on en.wiki mentioned by
Bence.[1] (Again, I'm just taking this as an example.)
This is exactly why thematic organisations need not a less clear, but a more
clear, general rule/line of demarcation than chapters.
Now that I think of it, you'll also need something about the visibility you
can get on Wikimedia projects: sitenotices, notices of all sort, even just
templates "this article/whatever was supported/provided/rubberstamped by
entity X" tend to be subject to controversies. ChapCom/AffCom will know
better and you can build on years of experience of chapters. ;-)
I guess there is a danger that in due time, someone may apply to
create "Wikimedia Alternative Medicine Association" or "Wikimedia
Traditional Chineese Medicine Association" if the Wikimedia Medicine
would decide to advocate for scientific POV in medical content in
Wikipedia... And the medicine is not that controversial issue - but
take into consideration that there is already a proposal for:
so we can expect, just for the sake of keeping a balance of neutrality
of the Wikimedia establishement of "Wikimedia Heterosexual
Association". Then someone may create some day "Wikimedia Roman
Catholic Association" and then for the balance also "Wikimedia
Protestant Association"...
--
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz