Sue and all:
On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 7:38 PM, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
There are no special WMF policies related to this. It might seem that perhaps there should be, but I have thought about it a lot and I believe it'd be a bad idea.
This is something I've also thought about a lot. I'd like to offer a different perspective.
In part that's because the on-wiki
policies/practices/guidelines/conventions are numerous and ever-evolving, and so copying or mirroring or summarizing them, and keeping that updated, would be a lot of work for the WMF.
The community guidelines are extremely complex, yes. I consider that an argument *in favor* of adopting simpler rules for staff, that exceed community rules. For a general idea, here are the kind of rules that could be implemented for staff: * Staff will not edit Wikipedia, at all * Staff will not edit Wikipedia unless they have discussed appropriate boundaries around their editing with their supervisor * Staff will not edit Wikipedia unless they have discussed appropriate boundaries with XYZ people in the Community department * Staff will not edit Wikipedia under accounts that are unconnected to their real name * Staff will not edit Wikipedia on behalf of paying clients
Any one of these rules would *reduce* the amount of confusion a staff member might have about what is or isn't OK, not increase it. They would of course remain subject to Wikipedia's rules as well, but these would help them stay out of the kind of grey area that might get them in trouble.
-Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]