[Foundation-l] 2011 elections - low turnout

[Philippe Beaudette]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 8:52 PM, Philippe Beaudette
<philippe at wikimedia.org>wrote:

>
>
>
> 2011/3/20 KIZU Naoko <aphaia at gmail.com>
>
>> Phillipe could give the whole recollection perhaps? Or it would be
>> somehow embarrassing for now a WMF staffer? :D
>>
>
> I don't recall anything that would be particularly embarrassing, but I'll
> be honest and say I don't recall anything at ALL about that decision.  Let
> me dig through some old emails and see if I can find out why. :)
>
> pb
>

OK, I did some reading of the archives.  It appears that we determined the
endorsements process served one significant purpose (to eliminate
non-serious candidates) but beyond that wasn't a fairly tremendous help to
anyone.  At the time we were doing a pretty complex endorsements system that
had a phase in which people without enough endorsements were dropped from
the ballot.

Objections were raised that it seemed odd to go through the work of
translating statements, etc, and then eliminate someone before the "second
phase" - the actual vote - began.

In the end, I think the final feeling was "lot of work, not a lot of value
provided".

That said, it was years ago, and I have no idea if I'd say the same things
today that I said then.

(This is a 30,000 foot overview based on a few minutes of research).

pb