[Wikimedia-l] Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method

[David Levy]

MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> It's funny, I just had a look at the wikimedia-l archive around January
> 2012... you know, that time when Wikipedia literally shut itself down as a
> political statement. The following month, the Wikimedia Foundation
> established a "Community Advocacy" department, not to be confused with
> lobbying, of which you're now a member.
>
> I can appreciate the many legitimate reasons to not accept Bitcoin and I'm
> grateful for your candid thoughts on the matter, but the idea that you, of
> all people, would try to claim that it might (gasp!) insert politics into
> Wikipedia is simply disrespectful to history and reality.

I interpreted James Alexander's statement to mean that it's "not our
job" and "not our role" to make the particular political statement
that Bitcoin's proponents seek.  This doesn't mean that it's *never*
okay for us to engage in advocacy of a political nature, particularly
in response to something potentially threatening a WMF project's very
existence.  (Whether SOPA and PIPA actually posed a significant threat
is debatable, but the action in question stemmed from the belief that
they did.)

David Levy