[Foundation-l] Policy modification (was possible reconsideration)

[Ray Saintonge]

Jesse Plamondon-Willard wrote:
> Andrew Dalby wrote:
>   
>> Sorry to come along late but I think a correction is needed here: so far as I
>> can discover, the exclusion of ancient languages was not proposed through the
>> community and was not discussed by the subcommittee. I could find no record that
>> the amendment by which it was introduced was even noticed by the subcommittee.
>> Please correct me if I'm wrong here!
>>     
> The policy itself was originally passed through the community, and a
> slightly modified version was approved by the subcommittee. The
> amendment excluding ancient languages was later agreed upon by the
> subcommittee (there is no community consensus either way on the
> amendment).
>
> You can read subcommittee discussion at
> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_subcommittee/Archives> (those
> archives are opt-in, so messages from two members are censored).
>
>   
While I'm not at this moment ready to comment on the matter of ancient 
languages, the question of "slightly modified versions" is a persistent 
problem for policy pages.  Cumulative slight modifications can result in 
policies that are quite different from what is intended. If a community 
approves of a policy, committees should be reticent to change policies 
on their own without community approval; this should also apply to small 
changes that do not fall into strict pre-approved guidelines for changes.

I don't know whether the original community approved version included or 
excluded ancient languages, but any amendment to change the situation 
should be community approved.  If a proposed amendment fails to meet 
community approval criteria it fails, and that's the end of it.  It is 
not the mandate of  a subcommittee to override that.  I am well aware of 
the problem of inadequate community participation, but community silence 
does not mean consent, and without a predetermined minimum level of 
community participation no policy or policy amendment should be 
considered as approved.

Ec