The Cunctator wrote:
One question: are calls to the Foundation considered confidential? What is
the standard policy for disclosing the reasons for actions taken by employees
of the Foundation with respect to content on Wikipedia? My understanding
from the above is that people who pick up the phone to get things edited on
Wikipedia get to operate under a different set of
guidelines from all other contributors.
Danny answers:
There is no set answer--it all depends on circumstances. For instance, I
received a call from a Senator's office complaining that the number of
grandchildren he had was 8, not 6. It was fixed. No need for discussion. No need
to make a big deal out of it. On the other hand, I received a call from a
popular singer that information is misstated-it is fixed quietly, without
attracting trolls by announcing it.I receive a call from a lawyer--the same. I will
however add this: I spend at least one-third of my time just answering the
calls. It is very time consuming, and they come in at all hours of the day,
interrupting what I am otherwise doing (donor management, for instance). I
CANNOT spend another one-third or more of my time explaining every phone call to
the community. There are too many other things that have to be done. And no,
phone calls are not treated differently from regular edits. BUT these are not
discussions by the community. They are often valid issues raised by the
people we write about. I will NOT tell a senator, artist, news-figure, etc. to
GOFIXIT. It is our responsibility, not theirs, to get the information correct.
These are not contributors--they are the subjects of whom our contributors
write.
Danny