Its the perception of openness. I will note that this list pre-dates the existence of the chapter.
Such a fundamental change in how the openess of list is percieved is an unbelievably important concept, and without even discussing with the list community involved wouldn't be tolerated elsewhere should it have been done by the foundation.
Its been used by both incarnations of chapter, wiki-meets, wikimania bids, in fact this list was pretty much the sole catalyst why the chapter got rebooted. This is list for use by the UK community as a whole. The chapter supports that community not control it. I know that this is such a minor matter but it really is something that the board and whoever sits on it now and in the future has got to remember. I don't question the motives or integrity or the board. I am 100% certain that this was done in complete good faith but its a trap that I know people on and off the board are always worried about and that's the role of the chapter in the UK community. This is the kind of action that should not happen by committee. Its a unilateral move that is unwarrented and is simply unacceptable.
The action is pointless and I dont think that the archives should remain closed but the main point and one I have a major issue with, is how this action occured. I do not want to have to start making arguments to the board that we make to the foundation.
Seddon
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 00:31:04 +0100
From: james.farrar@gmail.com
To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] List archives
The counter-argument is, of course, if the archives are trivially available, what is the problem?
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