[Foundation-l] Jimmy Wales founder flag.

[Carl Lindstrom]

This may seem overly melodramatic but I want to quote from Gore Vidal:

"Tiberius, when he became Emperor, the Senate sent him a message saying that whatever he wanted enacted would become law. And he sent it back to them and he said, 'Now don't be stupid. Suppose the Emperor has gone mad. Suppose he's ill. Suppose he's been replaced secretly. You can't give such powers.' And they sent it back to him, and he sent back a message, 'How eager you are to be slaves.'"

Jimbo has allegedly removed some of his rights on Commons but he still has his founder flags and can restore all his rights if and when he pleases. As long as he still has those rights, he's still a risk to the project. He's shown over the last few days that he's abused his powers. Very few people still trust him (people have questioned whether I'm right about this but I think various polls speak for themselves) and shouldn't have any special priviliges. These are priviliges that other users ''earn'' because they are trusted. Wales isn't trusted by the community and therefore shouldn't have any special powers. And this is not just a matter about deleting pictures on a whim, but about the integrity of the entire Wikimedia project. How can it be trusted when one man has absolute power to override consensus and policy? It's bad enough that Wales is a member of the foundation board, but as long as he's still here (the best thing would be if he left and never
 came back) he should have no special powers to wreak havoc on the projects. Please remove his founder flag, like well over 200 people have petitioned. 

This wonderful project that Mr. Wales started has grown to a collaborative project with thousands of users who volunteer their time, talent and energy to make it what is's become. It must not be ruled by the whims of one man. Again, I may sound melodramatic but I gues just like Wikipedia too much to see it potentially destroyed by an emperor gone mad. 

User:Entheta