Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
I don't think this is an accurate characterization of what happened at all. No one shouted down anyone. What happened was that there was a big discussion that we on the board judged to end in a consensus; we attempted to formulate the consensus as a proposal and approve it so that we could all move forward together on the next steps.
My general decision-making objection is that in all cases, it should be: 1) Wikipedian discussion 2) Determination that there is a consensus 3) Statement that there appears to be a consensus, and propose something based on that 4) Wait for comments on that proposed consensus-based whatever-it-is 5) Implement it
There doesn't appear to have been an interest in 3-4 here: instead it was straight from "board determines there is a consensus" to "board implements", which should *never* happen---it should go from "board determines there is a consensus" to "board *proposes* an action to the community."
-Mark