On 3/12/06, daniwo59@aol.com daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
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.
That doesn't seem like a particularly scalable policy.