[Wikimedia-l] Go away, community (from WMF wiki at least)

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

MZMcBride, 12/05/2013 22:45:
> Why did you feel compelled to act here when it wasn't your decision? Was
> there something preventing Gayle from doing this herself?

Be honest, if Gayle had done this herself you would have said that maybe 
she hadn't read the documentation on Special:UserRights carefully and it 
was a mistake. :)

>
> It's pretty strange to involve yourself in this decision (that wasn't
> yours) and then turn around and say "well why are you pointing at me?!"
> You were raised in a wiki culture, just as I was, where an individual is
> responsible for the actions of his or her account. You obviously felt an
> obligation to act here. What remains unclear is why.

To me it's very clear, nobody wanted to take responsibility or blame for 
the decision(*) so they let someone who's going out of town take the 
blame, someone in another department press the button, and the top 
management cover everything with flimsy rhetoric. Next time they could 
do better, the act could be executed before a longer holiday or be 
spread across more departments (a third person to send the notification 
emails, or a deflag squad of 14 staffers as with fusillading). But no 
worries, the WMF is still a young org and is learning.

Nemo

(*) Which may have been discussed for several weeks, as Nathan pointed out.