[Foundation-l] A Board member's perspective

[Milos Rancic]

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 11:48 PM, Stuart West <stuwest at gmail.com> wrote:
> A lot has happened since my email so here's a quick follow-up. I hear the
> concerns many of you have raised on this list and elsewhere. I feel awful
> about them. As Kat said so well, I think there is a big difference between
> the principles the Board agreed to in our statement and the actions taken by
> Jimmy and others.
>
> I supported the Board statement last week and still support it. I believe
> the presence of materials unambiguously not relevant to our educational
> mission is bad for us as it can alienate people (users, potential new
> volunteers, educators, others) who we need on our side to accomplish our
> mission. I know this is a complex issue.  Many people have thought more
> about the challenges than I have (please read Greg Maxwell's great email for
> some of the history
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/058081.html). I
> am trying to catch up. I hoped the Board statement would both encourage the
> community to pursue a clean-up drive and also renew community efforts to
> resolve the tough policy issues.
>
> I do not support the degree of unilateral deleting that happened. I was
> happy to see deletion of the really bad stuff that unambiguously lacked
> educational and historical significance. I wasn't expecting and wasn't happy
> to see how far things went without broader community involvement. Jimmy
> acknowledged this wasn't right and I respect his apology.
>
> What I didn't say in my earlier emails, and should have, is that I want the
> leadership resolving this to come from the community. I feel passionately
> the community is the heart and soul of our movement. Without you we have
> nothing. I am in awe of your energy, commitment, and ability to change the
> world. As Ting said, we as a Board can at times help focus energy. But I
> believe the best solution is a community solution.
>
> I'm really sorry about the way this played out. Commons editors should feel
> they have more support and encouragement dealing with this tough issue, not
> less.
>
> I'll be on the IRC open meeting tomorrow if you want to discuss live.
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_meetings#May_12.2C_2010.

Thank you, Stu!