[Foundation-l] Reflections on the recent debates

[MZMcBride]

Mike Godwin wrote:
> Similarly, I don't favor "attacks on free speech" -- but like Nat Hentoff and
> other free-speech theorists, I recognize that free speech depends on active
> intervention and rule-making sometimes.  I know you are trying to be
> provocative, but what you write here suggests that you don't actually
> understand much of the nuance of free-speech principles.

And once again, the goalposts are shifting. In Jimmy's original comments on
Commons, he paints this as a legal issue.[1] In subsequent posts to this
mailing list, he paints this as a public relations issue.[2] Now you're
trying to suggest that it's a free speech issue and that he was acting in
the interest of promoting free speech (in a rather roundabout way, I'll
add).

That isn't to say that it's impossible that Jimmy _might_ have been doing
all three at once, but the odds favor the conclusion that he's simply acting
to serve his own interests and using whatever storyline justifies his action
the most when people call him out on his poor behavior.

I'm not trying to be provocative, I'm trying to figure out where these views
of yours are coming from, especially if they're not coming from your role as
a Wikimedia Foundation employee. If you were speaking as an employee,
standing behind Jimmy makes perfect sense: he's the one who, in many ways,
pays the bills. It's his face on the donation banners that bring in the
funds needed to keep your job and the Wikimedia Foundation sustainable.

However, as someone who doesn't have a financial stake, as a non-Wikimedia
Foundation employee, as an Internet libertarian, I don't see where you get
off doing anything _but_ admonishing Jimmy's actions. His actions appear to
be completely at odds with your past positions in this area. Perhaps you can
explain how Jimmy's "active intervention and rule-making" promote free
speech or, at a minimum, do it no harm. I'm still not seeing it.

MZMcBride

[1] 
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=38835388&oldid=38835233#Record
_keeping
[2] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/057896.html