[Foundation-l] Voting requirements for community selected seats (Was: unable to vote)

[Lars Aronsson]

Dan Rosenthal wrote:

> The distinction is that the community board members will 
> represent the community, of which you are a member,

The problem is the unclear and unfair definition of this 
"community".  It is not self-evident that I am a member or that 
this community even exists.  Who's in and who's out?  If you are 
speaking *for* this group, who are you speaking *againt*?

I happen to be white-skinned, blue-eyed and right-handed, but I 
refuse to be counted among "the community of right-handed people", 
where someone claims to "represent" the interests of this 
community, inevitably against the interests of left-handed people,
or even against people without hands.

I happen to edit Wikipedia and to have the edit count required 
(this year!) to be able to vote.  But I would not want anybody to 
count people like me and use that large number as a platform for 
speaking out against non-members of this so-called "community". 
For example, old-timers who have been inactive in the last 18 
months could have radically different ideas about username 
usurpation, but if you exclude them from your definition of the 
"community" (of currently active contributors), you don't need to 
take their opinions into account.

In any political party, church or other membership association 
(such as the national WMF chapters), I have the right to leave.  
On Wikipedia I supposedly have the [[right to vanish]].  But once 
I have edited Wikipedia and reached the required edit count, there 
seems to be no way for me to voluntarily leave this "Wikimedia 
community", that you wish to represent.  I can refrain from voting 
(as I have done so far), but you will still count me as a member.

> I don't agree with actions taken by the the U.S. Government. 

But if they start to burn books, you are free to leave. Would you 
ever want to live in a country that didn't allow you to leave?  
If you become really unhappy with the people who represent the 
right-handed, would you start to write with your left hand? Or 
would you refute the whole idea of "handedness communities"?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se