Thanks for the summary, Chris.
Communications problems with WMF are a sore spot for me, as I've suffered through a number of them. Despite years of talking about improving communication, I've seen mixed results to date. I think that the community liaisons have been valuable, but there is still much room for improvement, particularly when it comes to how unpredictable WMF staff are in responding to talk page and email inquiries.
Narrowing focus a little bit to to expand on my earlier point on the value of having the decision-maker available to answer questions: if the decision-maker is unavailable for a good reason (and I don't mean a scheduled vacation, as a decision to pause the work for a team should have been thoughtfully considered prior to its announcement, and there is every good reason to budget an hour or two to prepare communications before announcing decisions like this), I think it's reasonable to expect that someone else with full access to the facts should be available for Q&A. That might be a communication person or a technical liaison, or the person's supervisor. The impression I get is that Dan was making a good-faith effort to answer questions but did not have access to all of the facts. I hope that in future cases where the decision-maker is unavailable, that there will be better planning so that someone who does have access to all of the facts is available for Q&A.
I'm going to be frank. A scheduled vacation isn't an excuse for poor planning. I don't mean to say that in a punitive way (I've made planning errors myself), but rather in the sense that I hope that there will be thought invested in how to do better planning in the future for communications surrounding significant decisions when the decision-maker will be unavailable. Looping back to the beginning of this thread, I agree with DJ: "2: It shouldn't matter that Katie is on holidays, I'd assume/hope someone takes over her duties while she is away (Likely Dan himself and/or Wes Moran). Providing information on topics like this shouldn't have to wait until someone returns from a (likely well deserved) holiday." I've had similar frustrations with unresponsiveness from other staff, and I'd like to see some meaningful effort invested in ensuring that every good-faith inquiry gets a timely and well-informed answer.
This email is probably a little harsher than I would like it to sound. I admit to being frustrated -- not so much about this particular case, but the general situation of the very mixed levels of WMF staff responsiveness to requests for information.
Pine