[Wikipedia-l] Huge misunderstanding which arose from

[Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales]

Rebecca wrote:
> It's also apparent that even on the list, Mav wasn't the only one
> with objections. But because the three or four proponents of this
> shouted him (and others) down more vocally, it seems the board
> decides to go off and do their own thing.

I don't think this is an accurate characterization of what happened at
all.  No one shouted down anyone.  What happened was that there was a
big discussion that we on the board judged to end in a consensus; we
attempted to formulate the consensus as a proposal and approve it so
that we could all move forward together on the next steps.

Where we failed was as follows: (1) I think we misjudged that there
was a consensus, that there was an easy middle way to satisfy all
parties and (2) we did not bring Mav and others appropriately into the
final decisionmaking loop in order to make sure that everyone was
happy with the compromise proposal *before* moving forward.

These failings are very much noted and will not happen again.

The main thing I want people to understand is that no one shouted
anyone down to get their way, and that the board did not "go off and
do their own thing".

> If there is a non-forking policy, where is it, and why haven't I heard
> of it until now? If there is conditions placed on the creation of
> Wikispecies, what were they? Disclosure, people, disclosure.

Look, I don't want to be blunt, but sometimes I have to be blunt.  Did
you even read the announcement?  Did you read the detailed meeting
minutes that were published?  There's not much else to disclose other
than what I was wearing at the time of the meeting.

--Jimbo