[Foundation-l] Board statement of responsibility

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Some criticism is good some criticism is awful. We have seen concerted
attacks on the WMF and its officers by some who do not deserve to be named
or dare not to be named. When this is the criticism that is good, I prefer
to do without. It certainly does not improve the functioning of the WMF if
anything it polarises our community. As to evidence, the quality of what is
purported to be evidence can be best qualified as utter crap and.

There is a difference between criticism and smear and certainly when
criticism is spinned in order to assassinate the character of people one
disagrees with or does not like, it makes sense for the people who have to
know a lot of confidential information to function, to sign an agreement
that gives them a moral obligation to remain on the straight and narrow.
Thanks,
      GerardM

On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "Trustees agree that that, during their terms on the Board and for
> three years thereafter, they shall not, in any communications with the
> press or other media or any customer, client or supplier of the
> Foundation, or any of the Foundation's affiliates, or in discussions
> on community mailing lists, blogs, or other community forums,
> personally criticize, ridicule or make any statement that personally
> disparages or is personally derogatory of the Foundation or its
> affiliates or any of their respective directors, trustees, or senior
> officers."
>
> That explicitly bans all public criticism. Criticism is good,
> criticism is how things improve. Sometimes that criticism has to be
> public to be effective - for example, how can we make an informed vote
> for board members if we're not allowed to know that they've done
> various things wrong during their previous term in office (of course,
> I would expect anyone making such accusations to provide evidence to
> support them)?
>
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