Dear Wikimedia-l subscribers.
I write to you in my volunteer capacity of list-admin, to inform you that the entire Wikimedia-l mailing list is now under moderation, meaning all posts will have to be manually reviewed and approved by one of the admins.
Here's why:
Comments on the thread titled (and seeking to remove) "Promotion of scientific racism in Wikipedia articles" have upset a large number of people, quite a few of whom wrote to the list-admins requesting that the thread be shut down.
Reviewing the thread, we see some comments that AT BEST (assuming good faith) are ignorant, insensitive, and tone-deaf, especially in the current moment. As always when ASSUMING good faith, the assumption may not be correct, and some of the comments may be deliberate trolling, i.e. calculated to upset people.
Be that as it may, people are indeed upset, and the prospects of constructive conversation about Fae's original topic -- which was essentially an instance of a well-known systemic problem of Wikipedia, viz. its susceptibility to relying on outdated or debunked sources, and the difficulty to dislodge some such sources -- seem very poor.
Shutting down a single thread is not technically possible on a plain mailing list, so we have moderated the entire list as a stopgap measure.
Our goal is to restore unmoderated list access AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. Toward that end, we ask the following:
============================ 1. Make no more responses AT ALL on that thread started by Fae.
2. Recognize that the list is for coordination and discussion of matters related to our work as Wikimedians in service of the Wikimedia mission. It is *not* the appropriate venue to debate content issues, including the concept of "race", various racial theories, etc.
3. If you would like to pursue work around this systemic issue, I encourage you to create an on-wiki task force or WikiProject, where you would be able to clarify methodological questions and plan the on-wiki work. If you start such a project, announcing it publicly on this list to let people know it exists would be permitted.
4. Recognize that whether or not you are personally feeling anything special is going on, *a lot* of people around the world are undergoing a trying time right now -- over and beyond the already-trying pandemic conditions -- specifically involving the diverse phenomena of racism and bigotry. People experience it in many different ways, but quite a few are hurting, quite a few are raging, quite a few are frustrated and upset, etc.
Whatever your opinions about these complex and charged issues, it would be an act of empathetic kindness and collegiality to your fellow Wikimedians who *are* experiencing an exceptionally trying time if you *avoid* choosing this time to air out those opinions. ============================
We shall do our best to monitor the moderation queue at closer intervals, to support regular list activity on all other topics. People who would not heed our requests above will remain on moderation after the entire list is unmoderated. (We will announce when that happens.)
Your list moderators.