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

[George Herbert]

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 1:47 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Jimmy Wales wrote:
>> Thomas Dalton wrote:
>>
>>> As I explicitly said, it doesn't matter if you actually demand it or
>>> not, just saying there are legal concerns is effectively a demand for
>>> its removal.
>>>
>> No, it is not.
>
> It is hard to avoid the impression that every word spoken by the pope is
> /ex cathedra/. You and Mike in particular will frequently want to
> comment as ordinary editors, but it is hard to avoid arguments like "but
> Jimbo wrote in June 2003 that ...."  You may have no memory of what you
> wrote then, and may even have changed views since, but for someone who
> is trying to push a point of view it is an irrefutable argument to be
> exploited.
>
> Much as I would decry it, there remains a level of deference to
> authority within the projects that is not easily overcome. Much of what
> you say is treated as a demand irrespective of whether you intended it
> that way.


Both Mike and Jimmy have tried to be clear when they're communicating
an official position.  There have been problems with this in the past
(the events leading to Erik's short desysopping, for example, among
others), but I think in general everyone's more aware of this now.
The bulk of administrators and I hope all the Stewards are aware of
the issues and won't sanction when there's no clear "the Foundation
OFFICE hat was on".

Unfortunately, this sort of situation can sometimes lead to a negative
feedback loop.  Jimmy tries to communicate in a neutral manner without
overusing authority, and then once in a while has to drop an official
action hammer on someone.  Some will perceive this as arbitrary hand
of god behavior and treat everything else Jimmy says more
deferentially as you note.  Which was the opposite of the initial
intent.

I think that as a general rule, that can be combated by attempting to
get to know Jimmy if you have to deal with him - and, generalizing,
get to know the people in the "power structure" as it is both in the
community and Foundation.

Familiarity usually breeds some mutual respect and lessens the
tendency to overreact in stress situations.  A great deal of potential
problems are headed off because someone does send a private email to
someone else, or ask on IRC, or knows someone from posts to wikien-L
or the foundation list.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com