[Foundation-l] Advertisement

[Teun Spaans]

Sorry, Birgitte. It may be that this mailinglist is intended as  the
communication channel between the foundation and the community, but I dont
think it works very well. The reactions here show most, if not all, people
were taken by surprise. Which in itself shows this mailing list doesnt
provide

To blame the people for not reading this mailing list is imho opinion the
wrong approach.

Perhaps a bot posting sensitive messages into every village pump, simply in
english, would be a solution.

Most posts here are not very interesting to the avergae wikipedian. The
summary indeed , but doesnt mention Virgins name: "our anonymous donor's
decision".  I dont see any mention of a sitenotice before dec 20. That's
about a week in advance.

Please dont misunderstand me: I dont say we shouldnt have taken the gift. I
appreciate their gift, and 60K/day is a large amount. But timely
communication would have prevented a lot of misunderstanding. Of course then
too some people would have recated vehemently, but it would have been easier
to explain.

teun

On 12/28/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Oldak Quill <oldakquill at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > > 5) Could the board please communicate all
> > decisions which are sensitive
> > > among the wikipedians, timely to all relevent
> > mailinglists?
> >
> > I second this request.
> >
> > > 6) Has there ever been an open call to all
> > wikipedians to provide
> > > suggestions to the foundationboard of ways to
> > receive money?
> >
> > Not formally, I think.
> >
> > --
> > Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)
> >
>
> 5)No, just follow this list.
>
> 6)Yes
>
> This is the mailing list you subscribe to to be aware
> of things that affect all Wikimedia communities.  If
> you are part of another mailing list that you think
> would be sensitive to an issue here, you should
> forward the message along to that list.  There is also
> now a summary service on meta which you could point
> people towards.
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LSS/foundation-l-archives
>
> At the beginning of the drive there was an
> announcement on this list of the fund raising drive
> which included many details you seem to have been
> unaware of.  But the general idea of matching donors
> had been discussed here much earlier.
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LSS/foundation-l-archives/2006_12_10-16
> "Brad Patrick announced the opening of the latest
> fundraising"
>
>
> There have been many messages asking for people to
> help with fundraising.  Announcing the creation of the
> Fundraising Committee and asking interested people to
> sign up (Certainly an open call).  Even more general
> questions asking for fundraising ideas both before and
> after the Committee was started.  Any fundraising
> discussions seemed to be met with questions about the
> audit and budget.  It seems to me that the current
> drive began as soon as the audit was released because
> of a real need of money that has probably been put off
> because the community requested the WMF not take part
> in any overt fundraising until the audit documents
> were released.
>
> Anyone has been subscribed to this list should be
> aware of all this.  Anyone who wishes to be aware of
> these sorts of things should subscribe or read the LSS
> including links.  I think most people who have
> subscribed to list did so because they were blindsided
> by some decision in the past and wanted to make sure
> they stayed informed in the future.  I know I did.  I
> sympathize that you feel blindsided, but it can only
> be up to you to ensure that you are informed of these
> things.
>
> Birgitte SB
>
>
>
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