[Foundation-l] Request for assistance

[Virgilio A. P. Machado]

On Wed, January 5, 2011 10:02 pm, George Herbert wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 1:51 PM, Virgilio A. P. Machado <vam at fct.unl.pt>
wrote:
>> Is this supposed to be funny?
>>
>> Time to address this matter to the list moderators.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Virgilio A. P. Machado
>
>
> Neither of these was funny; both were backhanded insults to you.
>
> That said - I am not sure what role you think foundation-l should be
playing in your being banned from meta.wikimedia.org.  You're claiming
the snide responses are off topic and inappropriate.  The original
request was off topic and inappropriate as well, though not snide.
>
> I am completely not up on the politics on Meta, or the other Wikis
you've been banned or long term blocked on, but as a general rule people
who are being blocked or banned across multiple wikis are behaving in a
way that causes the blocks, even if there are aspects of some of the
blocks which are imperfect admin response.  There seem to be a number of
people on Meta who thought you were behaving
> inappropriately.
>
> Even if the blocks were abusive and inappropriate, foundation-l isn't a
block appeal channel.
>
>
> --
> -george william herbert
> george.herbert at gmail.com

A sensible answer and commentary is deeply appreciated. Please accept this
user's apologies for not answering in the proper order, something quite
out of character. Notifications are received by mail in almost a random
order, and comments were being answered through that channel.

It is not up to a mere user to decide if some list members are being
uncivil. That's the responsibility of the moderators. It has been said
several times, and it may be necessary to repeat it many more times until
others eventually get it. The person that can offend or intimidate another
has not been born yet. Nobody can offend or intimidate another, for the
same reason that that person will not be happy or do as it pleases for the
rest of his/her life, just because someone tells him/her so. Nobody has
that much power.

The only role that the Foundation-l was expected to play in the
unfortunate events unfolding on Meta was, exactly as stated, to be a
communication venue with "women and men of good faith who are members of
this mailing list" so that they could provide whatever assistance they
deemed appropriate and were capable of providing, mainly helping with
answers to the six items listed a) through f). So far, nobody as provided
that kind of assistance.

A request for assistance is never off topic, anywhere, under any
circumstances. If that concept is difficult to grasp, there's no
difficulty whatsoever in expanding and explaining it, in as much detail as
required.

There was no clue that the events of Foundation wikis could be a matter of
politics. They were always seen as matters of policies and procedures, not
quite the same thing.

Lets put some of the bans that were mentioned in the proper perspective.
brwikimedia and ptwikimedia are the wikis of the Brazilian and Portuguese
chapters, that, like the Portuguese Wikipedia are run by the same usual
suspects. Please note that according to a recent news item there's about
30 Portuguese active editors (Population: about 10 million).

The work on Meta was being done in an orderly manner until the disruption
provoked and caused by the same usual suspects mentioned above. That's the
only reason for "being blocked or banned across multiple wikis."

The user is the same. Trouble only started after the interference of the
usual suspects of the Portuguese Wikipedia on Meta. Their votes can be
seen popping up on the RfA. There has never been a single block on any
other Wikimedia project where these editors do not have any influence. The
obvious conclusion is that the hostile behavior stays with the usual
suspects, not this user.

The unintended consequence is that the usual suspects have granted a
single user a disproportionate power and influence: the power of one.

There is no block appeal made on this list. If there is, please quote the
sentences where it is made. What was made was a request for assistance "to
all women and men of good faith who are members of this mailing list,"
because of a strong, unshakable and unflinching belief that such persons
exist. There is only some doubt if they have been reached yet.

Sincerely,

Virgilio A. P. Machado