[Wikipedia-l] Bylaws Part IV

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthere wrote:

> Section 4.2. WRITTEN RESIGNATION. Any member may resign from the 
> Foundation by submitting a written resignation to the Secretary. Such 
> resignation shall be effective as of the date received by the 
> Foundation, unless said resignation specifies another date. The Board 
> at its sole discretion may maintain or remove any such users account 
> from any of its projects upon such resignation.
>
> Wait a minute there...Why should resignation from the wikimedia 
> foundation have ANY sort of relation with the fact of being allowed to 
> contribute to Wikipedia ?
>
> Are we writting here that the board may have the right to erase a user 
> account from Wikipedia, just upon the argument that the user in 
> question decided to resign from the foundation ?
>
> Are we saying that the board of the foundation is having any power as 
> to decide who is allowed or not allowed to have an account ?

Perhaps the problem here is with the words "at its sole discretion". 
 Most of these accounts would be removed as a result of a request by the 
resigning person.  Placed where it is, it only applies to persons who 
have resigned.  Presumably the issue would be considered elsewhere if it 
referred to a banned user.  It is also possible that the person may wish 
to return with a different identity.  Thus someone who has been active 
in our internal politics may decide to come back with a less conspicuous 
identity and limit his edits to a few non-controversial areas without a 
lot of hassle.

Ec