On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 10:54 AM, Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Gerard, I believe the topic of capping costs is
a reasonable one
because, simply put, there are not unlimited resources within the movement.
Some of us have the financial wherewithal to attend "on our own dime", but
many of our colleagues from around the world are not in that position.
Let's stipulate that there isn't a lot of empirical evidence proving the
value of Wikimania to the movement. I think the same could be said for tens
of millions of dollars in WMF spending. Considering the comparatively tiny
cost of Wikimania, it makes much more sense to me for the WMF to put its
own operations through a cost/benefit crucible. This is just one more
example of the WMF being much more demanding on money spent outside the
organization than it is on internal spending.
It doesn't appear that the options presented were really fair or that the
conclusions drawn from them can be considered supported; option 1 was the
"give WMF complete control" option, option 2 was "get rid of
Wikimania" and
option 3 was "Have Wikimania every other year." I have to suspect that if
there was a "have Wikimania every year, don't give WMF control" option many
would have selected it.
If a different organization decides to host its own Wikimania (and I don't
know that the WMF "owns" the name Wikimania) in 2018, I would happily
support that effort.