[WikiEN-l] Re: Terms of use

[Tim Starling]

Delirium wrote:
> I think we should continue the consensus-based system of "officialness" 
> that we've been using for years now: if the Wikipedia community says 
> it's official, then it's official.  That's what the discussion on the 
> talk page is for: to hammer out a consensus wording.
> 
> Perhaps for legal niceties the board ought to rubber-stamp it, but I 
> certainly would expect the board wouldn't fail to agree to something 
> that has been drawn up by consensus.

Community consensus can't be a party to a contract. For this and other 
reasons, I removed the terms of use link from the footer. As a 
replacement for its main point, I added a copyright notice to old 
revisions. JamesDay chose the wording. If there are no objections, I 
intend to add a notice to the terms of use page stating that it is not 
official policy.

I see no reason to use a contract to inform users of their obligations 
under US law. Just inform them, don't try to trick them into implicit 
agreements formed by "using this site in any way".

I also had concerns with the "submission standards", and changed that 
page accordingly. Please see the two talk pages for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Terms_of_use
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Submission_Standards

-- Tim Starling