[Foundation-l] Wikia leasing office space to WMF

[Delirium]

Anders Wegge Keller wrote:
> Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> writes:
> 
>> There's a reason organizations that depend on public goodwill try to
>> avoid even the appearance of impropriety in this sort of respect,
>> and auditors usually suggest avoiding those sorts of entanglements.
> 
>  Could you please keep the amount of crackpotish kookery at a minimum
> at this list?

In what respect is it "crackpottish" or "kookery" to suggest that even 
appearance of impropriety, even where none exists, is damaging to 
nonprofit organizations that depend on public goodwill?

I'm not alleging that any actual impropriety took place, and I believe 
Erik's explanations. But that's only because I know several of the board 
members and believe they have Wikimedia's best interests in mind---heck, 
I recall publicly campaigning for Erik's election to the board some time 
ago.

Most people, however, neither know the board nor have any particularly 
great knowledge of Wikimedia's internals. Were it any other 
organization, as in my Sierra Club example, I wouldn't believe the 
explanation, so I wouldn't blame non-Wikimedians who read about this in 
the newspaper if they were a bit skeptical. That seems like it'll 
inevitably be damaging from a PR and fundraising perspective. I believe 
Erik's explanation of the space's benefits, I just think the Board is 
underestimating the negative effects to the Foundation's reputation.

-Mark