Eclecticology wrote:
Alex R. wrote:
Besides the valid point that the public should have a say in the logo outcome it is not unreasonable to require some kind of registration before voting. That is done in practically all democracies including member and shareholder corporations.
I didn't know we had become a democracy. I've seen no evidence that Wikimedia is anything but a proprietary organization.
Well, it is now (or will be soon, I forget where we are technically in the legal process of changing things over) a nonprofit organisation; eventually it will have members and be a "corporation" in a generic sense.
IMO, the logo decision is the sort of very special, once-only decision that needs to be made at the organisational level according to bylaws written by the Wikimedia Board (which does not yet exist I believe). The voting process that we're going through now is rather farcical; but the real lesson to draw is not (IMO) that voting is good or bad, but that we should avoid making special, once-only decisions of this sort. It's OK for the logo, but most decisions should be kept small and local, chosen by consensus among the involved parties without wide-ranging effects. Like how we let anybody come in and edit a specific article just like that!
-- Toby