No, we deliberately chose not to (ask what their Wikipedia alias is), for the following reasons amongst others:
* E-mail will be the chief line of official, legal, communication with members. On-wiki communication is not appropriate for this since people may not check their talk page etc etc. * Interested parties will be engaged with on-wiki via the newsletter, and members will certainly be encouraged to sign up to it. However we gain nothing by forcing members onto the newsletter sign-up list or similar. * Both the company and its members are better off if it does not officially know any links between people's names and their usernames. The members since it preserves their anonymity more rigorously (otherwise we could potentially be subpoenaed to hand over such information) and the company since it makes it perfectly clear that the company is in no way responsible for the activities of its members on a particular wiki. * It also means that we will not be tempted to refuse people's membership based on their onwiki activity, at least as long as they keep their onwiki username private. (Though of course if they are disruptive in meetings etc then we reserve the right to revoke their membership at that point.)
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Oldak Quill Sent: 20 November 2008 14:19 To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Membership applications for Wiki UK Limited are now being invited!
2008/11/19 Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net:
All,
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Wiki UK Limited is now inviting membership applications! You can download the application form in PDF format from: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Image:Wiki_UK_Ltd_membership_application_form.pdf
Information is given on the form about membership fees (£12/year standard, £6 for concessions); these need to be paid by cheque initially, although we hope to accept other forms of payment in the future. Applications should be submitted to me at the address given on the form. If you have any queries about the application process, please let me know.
We will formally start accepting members once we have a bank account, as we cannot process membership fees until that time. We will be submitting our application for a bank account in the very near future, and we hope to have this set up by the end of December at the latest.
Thank you for your support so far; I look forward to receiving your membership applications.
Mike Peel Membership Secretary, Wiki UK Limited P.S. if you haven't already, please subscribe to our newsletter! See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Newsletter for more information and to subscribe.
Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL.
Perhaps the form should optionally ask what the person's Wikimedia alias is? This might help with contacting the person or engaging them on-wiki...