On 6 April 2011 00:36, Andrew Turvey andrewrturvey@googlemail.com wrote:
I remember back in 2008 when Wikimedia UK was relaunched there was a debate about whether people involved in the chapter should have to disclose their online identities. In the end most people did but the conclusion was that it shouldn't be mandatory.
There are quite a few people on Wikipedia who are quite protective of their pseudonymity - particularly people who are admins involved in contentous issues - and I think we should respect that.
Having said that, I agree with Mike that a question on the wiki would be a good place to ask that question.
Thanks for adding the question at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetings/2011_election:_Candidate_questions
I understand why it is not compulsory for candidates to disclose their wiki-identity, but it is difficult to evaluate candidates who talk about their wiki-experience in their statements without providing their user name. It is an odd situation that using your real name confers anonymity in these elections, where on-wiki the user name provides the anonymity, but if candidates want to refer to their wikimedia experience then I think that they must reveal their user name(s) even if they have previously fought hard to preserve the anonymity of their user name. At any rate, I will not be voting for any candidate who does not reveal their wiki-identity, even if I know who they are.
Andrew (BabelStone)