Ronald Chmara wrote:
Seriously though, 5,50, or even 500 people may create a publicly unknown mailing list, IRC channel, whatever, but in the end, they lack the ability to effectively have more "control" over wikipedia, as a group, than 5,50,or 500 independent people who have *no* participation in private mailing lists, or chats, or whatever. In order for a group to gain that level of control, they would have to have a consensus of the community, in which case, where they discuss things, and how they discuss things, is irrelevant.
Precisely. You cannot forbid people to form mailing lists and such. I think that it's necessary that there should sometimes exist some mailing lists that are private, because of the sensitive data that is being conveyed. At the Serbian Wikipedia, from time to time, we use e-mails with CCs to different people for some really private discussions and I think that's clever, because sometimes, public discussions are not welcome for some topics. Bottom line - no one can restrict it and god knows how many private mailing lists there are and we can't do anything about it. The consensus in the community will determine the outcome no matter how many people were subscribed to those lists. Filip