OTRS is an important part of our activity, and is akey interface
between our volunteers and key partner institutions, as well as (often
notable) individuals.
By its very nature, much of what OTRS agents do cannot be as
transparent as the rest of our activities, being rightly held as
confidential.
For that reason it is essential that what can be, is as transparent as possible.
Back in February, an issue arose [1] where it became known that an
OTRS agent was rejecting images supplied by individuals at the request
of Wikidata volunteers, to illustrate Wikidata items, apparently
because that individual misunderstood and was mis-applying Commons
policy.
During the discussion of that case, on the OTRS noticeboard on
Commons, I raised ten questions [2]:
1. what are OTRS' rules and policies?
2. where are those rules and policies documented, and why are they not public?
3. where are those rules and policies discussed and decided?
4. what is the process for getting those rules and policies changed
(or reworded for clarity)?
5. how is OTRS overseen, and who by?
6. what is the approval process for an individual to become an OTRS agent?
7. what is the process for the community to remove an individual's
OTRS permissions, if they fail to uphold or abide by policy?
8. if an individual has been acting contrary to policy, what is the
process for reviewing and if necessary overturning their past actions
(including contacting and apologising to their correspondents)?
9. which individuals can make someone an OTRS agent, or remove their
permissions?
10. how are the individuals in #9 appointed and overseen?
Some discussion ensued, and an email was reportedly posted to the
closed OTRS mailing list asking for input, but after several months
(indeed, nigh on half a year), THE QUESTIONS HAVE NOT YET BEEN
ANSWERED [*] (the discussion has even had to be restored from the
page's archives).
How the OTRS system operates remains opaque to most Wikimedians.
How can we get answers to these vital questions?
[Please preferably reply in the OTRS noticeboard thread if possible.
Where discussion does take place on this mailing list, please add key
points to the noticeboard thread]
[1]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OTRS/Noticeboard#OTRS_&_Wiki…
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OTRS/Noticeboard#questions
[*] A single link was provided, to
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/OTRS - which is a
set of 214 pages
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk