I personally think foundation-l is a good idea. Here is a list of topics that I can imagine for the foundation-l
Bylaws Fiscal issues Election Wikimediafoundation.org web site Proposal for new projects such as wikinews or commons Issues related to Meta Wikimedia
Regarding the five-day deadline, I think it is okay.
At Japanese Wikipedia, virtually no policy decision is made within a week. We wait at least 7 days to see if there is any dissent. (If there is, we discuss the proposal further, and take more time.)
But probably this list is merely a spin-out from the existing one, and that means the voting is mainly for those who are already on the list, as opposed to wikipedia-wide.
If there is any intention of increasing multilingual participation to a mailinglist (to this or any other), we may need to take more time and listen to what people have to say. But Erik's proposal is not about increasing participation, etc. If the current participants think splitting is a good idea, that might well be enough.
But still, if there is no reason to hurry, it is okay to vote for 7 days, or even to keep vote open until 3days of no voting activity, I suppose. If the list ends up under-used, for example, this kind of wider-consensus could serve as a source of legitimacy to keep it, and try to make use of it, as opposed to simply abandon it. But again, maybe Erik is thinking that it is too obvious that there is a need for the list, and taking long time for a vote is not necessary. He might be right.
Regards,
Tomos
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