I strongly oppose this Idea, once again. Some more reasons are listed below:
- This thread or any such future thread in no way represents Indian
Wikimedia communities. For example, there are tens of Wikipedians who don't
know that Tito proposed an idea to "Major Indian grant requests should
come to India mailing list" & also trying to make it "mandatory".
This list
excludes several Indian Wikimedians who never voiced in this list.
Essentially, this would increase barriers for community members instead of
reducing it.
- It would be an interesting idea for Tito individually or CIS-A2K
institutionally to conduct a small study to map platforms that Indian
language wikimedians discuss & understand how much they are
missing/present
in this "so called Indian mailing list". I believe several
Wikimedians who
are doing a lot of work on wikis are not here.
- Instead of mandating grantees to publish their grant here and hoping that
the members of the thread would follow some of the "best practices" which
are very hard to impose, It would be better to see someone (not grantee,
ofcourse) post links of relevant grants and encourage interested members of
this list to comment on talk page itself.
- You mentioned "excessive canvassing, votestacking, back-scratching,
meatpuppetry" but not harassment, mockery, attacking grantees, etc., But, a
range of policy violations do happen in mailing lists, and people easily
got away with it. I don't see value in mandating people to have a discourse
on Non-wiki platforms and then try to impose policies which are very
difficult. This difficulty can not be mitigated after a level because this
is not our platform (off-wiki platform). I see this as a futile exercise.
- Food for thought: If we start asking people to post in mailing
list, why not fb groups and whatsapp groups? Where should we
start when we
mandate using an off-wiki platform as an official channel for
users? Is it
just because some of us who are elite enough believe this as a decent
platform?
I just mentioned some of my objections in this mail and not articulate
enough. But, please consider this idea is not acceptable for me and may be
for many of the Wikimedians who are not still in this list. Until there is
some sort of wider-discussion, consensus backed by strong study, This list
is and should be just another useful discussion forum, nothing more and
nothing less.
Thanks,
Pavan.
29 డిసెం, 2021, బుధ 10:31కి, Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com> ఇలా వ్రాసారు:
Hello,
After the launch of the current grant process, formation of the Regional
Grants Committee, announcement and commencement of round 1 applications, it
is probably good to revisit this thread. I hope that the Wikimedia
Foundation grants team and Regional Grants Committee (SAARC) would kindly
consider these over-all process-related notes.
Here are a few observations about the "over-all process"—
A
1) Major Indian grant requests should come to India mailing list. The term
"major" can be defined by an amount (more than "₹" amount) or any
other
criteria (region coverage, project coverage, duration etc). Possibly RGC
(SAARC) can kindly set up criteria?
2) I would suggest separate email threads for "major" grant requests,
however if this list gets too many emails, I would suggest to please send
at least a digest email clearly briefing the grant proposals.
3) Please consider making this step a mandatory one, and mark applications
"invalid" or "incomplete" unless the step is properly done.
4) This should not be done only as formality, and the community should be
allowed at least 7 to 10 days' time to comment. I would request RGC to
start reviewing only after this period.
5) There might be moderation and other issues in the list, and can be
handled separately.
B
1) Please consider working on an "Appropriate notification/canvassing
policy" (or guideline). This can be a document covering best practices, and
also possible inappropriate behaviours such as excessive canvassing,
votestacking, back-scratching, meatpuppetry etc. Please see a similar
thread I started on Wikimedia-l at [1]
2) It would be good to have a direct communication option with RGC
(SAARC). I suggest kindly make this on-wiki. Possibly this can be created
in form of a noticeboard at Grants_talk:Regions/SAARC or at
Grants:Regions/SAARC/Noticeboard
This or similar process may be replicated in other SAARC countries such as
Bangladesh, Nepal, and other regions also depending on the relevant
community request.
I'll be happy to voluntarily add inputs or work on any of the things
mentioned above such as A1, B1 etc.
Thanks,
User:Titodutta
(In volunteer capacity)
Footnotes
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
রবি, ১০ জানু, ২০২১ তারিখে ১০:৫৫ AM টায় তারিখে Tito Dutta <
trulytito(a)gmail.com> লিখেছেন:
Namaskara,
This might be some food for thought, and inputs are welcome. India
mailing list is the largest and most widely used Wikimedia mailing list for
the Indian community. Could we have a practice that all grant requests from
the country (or related to) are informed on the Wikimediaindia-l mailing
list?
Whether it is a state-level, project-level, language-level etc, or
whether it is a rapid grant, project grant etc it would be good to see the
plan details on this mailing list in advance. It will ensure greater
visibility, and it will also ensure the community's understanding/knowing
of each other's projects.
If we can have a practice like this, we can inform Wikimedia, or CR team
or relevant support structure(s) as an India community practice.
This post is in my personal capacity. Please assume good faith
Regards,
User:Titodutta
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