[Foundation-l] spamming of the english wikipedia users detected

[Robert Horning]

Sue Reed wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Robert Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net>
>
> There have been many times that I have needed private, personal 
> communication with specific Wikimedia users.  For various and very 
> legitimate reasons.  The e-mail function is explicitly to give this sort 
> of communication where (particularly with my talk page on en.wikibooks) 
> the user talk page is a very public forum for communication.  Spam in 
> this situation is very much against this principle, and significantly 
> reduces the value of this tool when it is needed the most.
>
>   
>
> Is it written anywhere that the e-mail user function is explicitly only for private, personal communication? 
>
> I, personally, agree with Jimbo with the caveat of another that it should be an opt-in to receive "special notices" from the Foundation. I have been following the mailing lists closely, but I really haven't been all that active on wikipedia lately, so I might have missed the site notice. 
>
> I also find it somewhat interesting that the Virgin charity "matching" advertisment during the last fundraiser was a more prominent site notice than the current election notice for the board of the foundation. There seems to be something very backwards about that. 
>
> Sue Anne
>   
If this is a common attitude, and I receive spam of this nature on a 
regular basis from either the board or several users, I will be very 
explicit here and completely disable my e-mail access completely from 
all Wikimedia projects.  I do feel this strongly about it, and I can't 
imagine that I am the only one here who feels this way.   I'll keep an 
e-mail address like spam at example.com, but how much good does that do 
anybody if they really do need to get ahold of me?  My point here is 
that this critical tool is going to be diminished significantly if it is 
abused, even if it is for "a good cause".

No, I don't think it is explicitly mentioned in any formal policy guide, 
but this is good etiquette.  And I'm willing to receive messages that 
are of monumental importance.... aka the WMF is shutting down because it 
has run completely out of funds and if you want a copy of the database 
download it by next week. (to use an example).  But shy of something 
that critical I don't want that sort of e-mail communication.  I'll read 
about it on the Signpost if I have time.

I'll say it again..... e-mail is hardly the only form of communications 
available, and it is up to the Wikipedia community to come up with 
another form of communication if the want to get the word out regarding 
this sort of issue.  Most contributors will likely be involved with an 
individual Wikiproject or other smaller sub-set of Wikipedia, and 
messages like this could also have been put on those Wikiproject talk 
pages.  Some grumbling may have happened even with that, but at least 
those are public forii.  I'm just asking you to think outside of the box 
here, and don't you dare tell me again that e-mail is the only possible 
avenue of communication to thousands of Wikipedia users.  I don't buy 
that at all.  I've already listed more than five other possible avenues 
of communication that do not require e-mail, and I'm sure I can come up 
with a dozen more if you are interested.

--  Robert Horning