[WikiEN-l] Former Wikimedia employee was a felon.

[Nick]

I'm sure that with hindsight, all the parties here would have acted
differently, but finding that an employee is a convicted fellon is not
something employers have to deal with on a regular basis. There's not a
great deal to be earned from discussing this topic continually, all I would
like to know is that the board have learned from this error and don't intend
to make the same error (not doing a background check) in future, and
perhaps, having information being passed to us by the Foundation rather than
the press.

There probably does need to be an assumption that if there is anything elses
hiding in the cupboard or has been swept under the carpet, it will
eventually appear in El Reg or the other press and there is nothing to be
gained from the Foundation not announcing news when they're aware of the
issue. This silly but serious mistake made by a really rather small and
probably overstretched office has been turned into something more sinister
by the press and confused and troublemaking users here and elsewhere. Future
incidents, of which I sincerely hope there are few, could be dealt with far
more effectively if the initial announcement comes from the Foundation, the
people responsible can take the blow on the chin and move on, instead of
becoming embroiled with endless body blows from which it will take a
considerable period for reputations and trust to recover for many.

On 16/12/2007, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> G MZ wrote:
> > I cannot see what difference it would have made if Christiano had told
> Jimbo
> > - what would Jimbo have done differently?
>
> We could have had Jimbo be the one to break the story to us, rather than
> the Register. I don't like having forums that have traditionally been
> considered irrationally critical of Wikipedia turn out to be the best
> place to go to find out about Wikipedia's inner workings. It boosts the
> credibility of those forums at the expense of our own.
>
>
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-- 
Nick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nick