[Foundation-l] Fwd: [WL-News] Wikimedia Foundation in danger of losing immunity under the Communications Decency Act

[Michael Snow]

Delirium wrote:
> Jimmy Wales wrote:
>   
>> Delirium wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> In one notable 
>>> incident, a current member of the board (Erik) was de-sysopped by Jimmy 
>>> in April 2006 for unprotecting an article that a Foundation 
>>> representative had protected, though that protection had not been 
>>> labeled as an official Foundation action.
>>>     
>>>       
>> I did not de-sysop Erik, ever.  To the contrary, actually.
>>
>> Please be careful about making such dramatic claims.
>>   
>>     
> My mistake; I completely misremembered who did what. Those interested in 
> the details can get the accurate summary from a contemporary edition of 
> the Wikipedia signpost:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-04-24/Office_actions
>
> In any case, though, Erik *was* blocked and desysopped for undoing a 
> Foundation action, and people since then (especially with less stature 
> in the community) have been quite wary of ignoring or undoing Foundation 
> "suggestions".
>   
I would add that incidents like this are part of the reason Mike prefers 
the Foundation avoid resorting to "office actions" if possible. As Kat 
has indicated, the reaction at the time was symptomatic of the 
dysfunctional organization in place then. I think the more professional 
office Sue has put in place would have handled the situation quite 
differently.

--Michael Snow