[Foundation-l] spamming of the english wikipedia users detected

[Sue Reed]

----- Original Message ----
From: Robert Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net>

There have been many times that I have needed private, personal 
communication with specific Wikimedia users.  For various and very 
legitimate reasons.  The e-mail function is explicitly to give this sort 
of communication where (particularly with my talk page on en.wikibooks) 
the user talk page is a very public forum for communication.  Spam in 
this situation is very much against this principle, and significantly 
reduces the value of this tool when it is needed the most.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Is it written anywhere that the e-mail user function is explicitly only for private, personal communication? 

I, personally, agree with Jimbo with the caveat of another that it should be an opt-in to receive "special notices" from the Foundation. I have been following the mailing lists closely, but I really haven't been all that active on wikipedia lately, so I might have missed the site notice. 

I also find it somewhat interesting that the Virgin charity "matching" advertisment during the last fundraiser was a more prominent site notice than the current election notice for the board of the foundation. There seems to be something very backwards about that. 

Sue Anne