[Wikimedia-l] Overloaded with CentralNotices (Tilman Bayer)

[Jane Darnell]

@Nemo, This is exactly what I was hoping to get from the Chapters
Association - a way to exchange ideas with other chapters about how to
inform more local Wikipedia editors about WMNL, and secondly, ask them
to join the chapter. The group of people who read the Dutch Village
pump is quite small and does not really represent the "community".

@Sue, I understand the idea behind doing this and applaud the idea -
it would be so much easier to make strategy decisions in WMNL if we
had more input from more involved people in the Dutch Wikipedia
community. I get that it is really a conflict of interest for WMNL
insiders to be the only ones to comment and approve the funds request
made by WMNL insiders. The problem with this central sitenotice, as
Romaine pointed out, is that it is in English and points to the WMNL
fund request in English.

All of the WMNL planning sessions and the approved WMNL strategy is in
Dutch. Our current approved year plan is an extract of our 5-year
strategy plan and therefore our fund request for that plan doesn't
quite fit the current FDC template. If someone would click on the
comment button, they are taken to the talk page of the Dutch FDC
request, which aside from a few comments (one of which is basically a
personal compliment from me to Sandra, our request filer, and the WMNL
board members who worked on it), there are a bunch of questions which
have been asked by the FDC that will need lots of time to answer (all
in English).

Without having read them all, I assume these are mostly questions that
would make the Dutch request fit more closely with the current FDC
template. These problems in formatting the message may seem to a Dutch
outsider at first glance as if the Dutch chapter is being somehow lax,
whereas we are just very busy with our conference this Saturday and
don't have time for this right now.

That all said, something positive has come out of this and a Dutch
journalist will be interviewing the staff at the WMNL office today. So
maybe it is a good thing the sitenotice opened up this little "dirty
back kitchen" of how WMNL works, confusing English and all.

Jane

2013/10/31, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org>:
> Just quickly while I walk down the street: I don't think the goal is
> necessarily to get input from chapters members -- as you say, the best
> avenue for those people to give input on chapter plans is probably simply
> to be involved in the chapter's internal planning processes.
>
> I think the purpose of the notices is probably equally/more to encourage
> non-chapters members to express their views, if they have them. The
> majority of Wikimedia participants (editors, admins, vandal fighters,
> whatever) are not chapters members, and many, perhaps even most, don't live
> in a geography where it's possible for them to join a chapter even if they
> wanted to. As we've said before, the money given to support the Wikimedia
> movement is the result of all volunteers' contributions, and so it makes
> sense for everyone to be invited to give input on how it's spent. And, the
> FDC has noted that it would like more involvement from all participants in
> the movement in expressing their views on that.
>
> In saying this, I don't mean to express a position on the notices themself.
> They may indeed not be the best way to encourage input. And I totally
> sympathize with editors who may not want to spend their spare time wading
> through budgets etc. -- it's totally reasonable that they might not find it
> fun :-) All I'm saying here is that efforts to encourage everyone to
> express whatever their views are, to the extent they have them, are
> consistent with the FDC's desire to hear from a wide range of people, which
> I think is appropriate and good.
>
> Thanks,
> Sue
> On Oct 30, 2013 2:37 AM, "Federico Leva (Nemo)" <nemowiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Jane Darnell, 30/10/2013 09:30:
>>
>>> I second your skepticism. Especially since most Dutch Wikipedians have no
>>> idea what WMNL is, according to a survey.
>>>
>>
>> Good point. Maybe all those who care about a chapter and its spending are
>> already members of the chapter so that they can participate in the
>> assembly
>> which decide on it (and related online discussions)? :)
>>
>> If we want greater community review of their spending, perhaps it would
>> make sense to run campaigns for community members to join the chapter.
>> Maybe other people have different experiences, but the associations I know
>> of usually try to convince you to join the association ("it's cool for X!
>> you are important for Y!") and then they try to gradually involve you
>> more;
>> I've never seen an association on a street distributing dozens-pages books
>> "hey! do you want to review our budget? it's great fun! we value your
>> input".
>>
>> Nemo
>>
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