No subject

A. Decided to change its makeup in a way that would make only 30% of the
Board be directly elected by editors, which is what a "community seat" had
been understood to mean heretofore.
B. Decided to change the definition of "community seat" to include seats
appointed by third parties (the chapters, of which a vanishingly small
minority of editors are members), so as to make it appear that the principle
of a community majority was still being followed.

As far as "A" is concerned, I have no strong feeling.  I don't really see
representation of the chapters as a particularly good or bad thing, just as
I don't see representation of the "community" as a good or bad thing.  The
community, the chapters, the Foundation, and even the individual projects as
such, are all only a means to an end.  If the Board had come out and said,
"we've decided it is in the best interests of the projects if a majority of
the board no longer is elected by the community, for reasons X Y and Z," I
personally wouldn't have had a big problem with it ... although, like
everyone else, I would still have preferred some open discussion before the
fact.

But "B," frankly, makes my blood boil.  I find it hard to believe that
anyone above the age of 4 would be expected to fall for this kind of ploy.
More to the point, I am concerned that a climate of obfuscation and
doublespeak, even more than the existing climate of non-communication and
opacity, *will* cause long-term harm to the projects.

Frankly, people who refuse to respect the intelligence of Wikimedians -- by
which I mean, in this case, our ability to identify and reject BS -- really
shouldn't be involved in the management of the projects, regardless of
whether anyone now has the power to remove them or not.  In this regard, I
sincerely hope that I and others have misinterpreted a substantial part of
this discussion.

Cheers,

Sam Henderson / Visviva (EN Wiktionary/Wikipedia)


>
> Why has this been simmering off in the wings?  What are people
> actually upset about?
>
>
> --
> -george william herbert
> george.herbert at gmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>