On 8/13/07, Rob Church robchur@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/08/07, Anthony wikitech@inbox.org wrote:
Considering that until a few weeks ago I (who follow the relevant mailing lists rather closely) didn't even know what exactly SUL was, I have to say that I don't think that is the case. A great many people right now still don't know what this whole SUL thing means. The documentation on it is inconsistent. Tons of misinformation is being spread.
Wasn't the Communications Committee supposed to ensure that users were advised of what would happen?
"Single user login" has been discussed and agonised about for a long period of time, on mailing lists, on Meta, and at Wikimania. It's been discussed in presentations at the previous two conferences, at least, for example.
Looking back, I guess it was brought up in a number of places, and I'm not quite sure how I missed it. I don't remember it being discussed on any of the non-tech mailing lists though.
If there is a lack of communication, then it's not the fault of the development team, it's the fault of the group which was tasked with communicating. If there is no such group, then the blame rests higher.
I don't blame the development team for the lack of communication, though I will blame them if they push this change through.
That there are large numbers of long-term users who, at this time, still don't know the precise facts (not the rumours) about it, well, that screams "unacceptable" to me.
I'd say now would be a good time to go through the list of users that might potentially be affected, and email them all, and put a message on each of their talk pages. Then sit back and watch the complaints, and hopefully change your mind.
SUL doesn't have to happen.