[Foundation-l] GFDL 1.3 Release

[Thomas Dalton]

2008/11/3 Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org>:
> 2008/11/3 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:
>> I'm not sure it was wise of the WMF to make that kind of commitment
>> without consulting the community. Allowing an external body to dictate
>> procedure on Wikimedia projects is a big deal that I expect a large
>> portion of the community to be very unhappy with.
>
> We've already made a commitment that the entire decision will be
> validated by means of referendum. To a certain extent, you'll have to
> trust WMF to negotiate on your behalf. We think that this proposal
> should and will reflect an acceptable compromise; if you don't agree,
> please tell us why now.

When negotiating on someone's behalf there are generally bounds to
what you can and can't agree to. Obviously there were no explicit
decisions on what those bounds were, but I'm not sure such an
agreement was within what the community would consider reasonable
bounds (although maybe it's just me, we'll see). While there will be a
referendum, you have significantly restricted our options. The fact
that the WMF didn't even attempt to apply public pressure to the FSF
suggests to me that you didn't do a very good job of negotiating on
our behalf. It's too late now, though, I guess, so we'll just have to
settle for your compromise.