[Foundation-l] Sakha Wikipedia passed 7000 articles

[Bence Damokos]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jesse (Pathoschild)
Date: 2010. augusztus 26. 21:29
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Sakha Wikipedia passed 7000 articles

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 10:14 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Can anyone else from the language committee offer a credible
> explanation of their special requirement for secrecy? Surely if this
> is a requirement, it can be explained, as Gerard did not.

Hello David,

There are some cases where confidentiality is necessary. We routinely
ask external experts for their evaluation of the test project content
before project approval, as Yaroslav mentioned early in this
discussion. These external persons are sometimes in situations where
speaking negatively about the content may be seen as an attack on
nationalist or culturalist interests, and put them at risk of
professional or personal reprisal. These persons are offered
confidentiality to protect them and to ensure we get their honest
opinion.

However, most content can be safely made public and is published to
the public archives if the email authors agree. These have not been
updated recently, but only because I have not had time to do so; they
should be updated in the coming months, now that someone has joined
with public archival as one of their goals.

By the way, the language committee never makes official statements.
Any comments from Gerard or I are our personal comments.

--
Yours cordially,
Jesse (Pathoschild)


Thanks Jesse for this explanation.
I am a still bit confused as to what is the reasoning for those members who 
chose not to disclose their messages publicly at all – not even on a case by 
case basis or at least on a summary level that would make the archives 
readable?
(One of them apparently chose so out of a conflict with their academic 
career, but what is the reason behind the other person's decision: does he 
only quote the outside experts or does he fulfill such inside expert role 
where he routinely has to trample on nationalistic or cultural feelings?)

Best regards,
Bence