Erik Moeller wrote:
In general, though, I'd prefer for WMF to move away from what could be characterized as appeasement and towards actively resisting censorship and monitoring.
I agree with you and I imagine most developers would agree with you. But the question remains: do most Wikimedians?
I think for most Wikimedians, but particularly for Wikimedians in areas where HTTPS access is restricted, I think there's a general view that having insecure access over HTTP trumps requiring HTTPS and cutting off access altogether. While we hope that this situation is inapplicable to most users, we have to recognize that it's applicable to some percent of our users. It'd be good to get numbers about how many users we're talking about and try to better understand what the Wikimedia community thinks is the best path forward, given the various constraints and consequences.
MZMcBride