-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 This, my friends, beyond the porn debate, is an important lesson about the vulnerability of wikipedia. You just have to threaten or convince Mr. Wales to control or shutdown the entire project. The whole community is powerless. When this crisis is over, we should think about giving a stronger autonomy to wikipedia. A project of this magnitude can no longer rest on the shoulder of one man, depending on his good faith. Wikipedia is making enemies (today: the prudes). One day they'll force Mr. Wales to denature the project. Is it today? I don't know. But don't be fooled about the appearances: the real crisis is not about porn, but about who has control on the project and who has control on these critical persons.
If this is an emergency situation requiring a justified, immediate, unilateral, king-like massive action, I regret Mr. Wales didn't take the time to explain the emergency to us. By rush-imposing his views and decisions on people who are not out of the debate yet, he is browbeating their inner self, ignoring their beliefs and opinions, discarding the value of the Other. This lack of respect and of equality of vote should be extremely well argumented and the reasons transparently communicated. Otherwise, trust, faith and adhesion to the WMF values dissolve. I don't think we should let this happen. Mr. Wales, I hope you enter reason and dialogue realms again. We're not idiots who can't understand strategy. And by the way, if you pretend to calm puritan donors in a first time, then try to reconquer the lost ground later, you just surrendered the whole project to them by showing that you will cede before their threat. Maybe it is time to adopt a bold secularism (morally neutral, but still respectful of humans)? Anyway, will I, for one, accept the situation if you don't explain? I would oppose any person pretending to dictate non-consensually how to handle the human knowledge: it is part of the Humanity Heritage. But you're the founder and I'm powerless. Am I? I think many of us are having these very questions now. Is it good for the WMF that we're asking them? Is it the consequence of Wales' bold actions? Is the board voluntarily ignoring our legitimate feelings ? On 07/05/2010 17:19, Marcus Buck wrote: > I try to understand what happened, but I'm not sure whether the pieces > that I found so far add up. > > * Larry Sanger is mad about Wikimedia. [apparent] > * Larry Sanger notifies the FBI and tells them Wikimedia hosts child > porn. [affirmed] > * The FBI is rather unimpressed and does not take swift action. [apparent] > * Larry Sanger informs media about us alleging Wikimedia of hosting > porn. [unaffirmed] > * The (conservative) TV station FOX reports about Wikimedia and contacts > many important companies that have donated money for Wikimedia in the > past whether they want to comment on the allegations. [affirmed] > * The companies are contacting Wikimedia to ask what's going on. > [unaffirmed] > * The board worries about losses in donations and either sends Jimbo to > Commons or Jimbo unilaterally decides to handle the case. [unaffirmed] > * Without mentioning the previous developments Jimbo starts to delete > all files that are "porn" (in his opinion, not sparing PD-old artworks > etc.). Even engaging in edit-warring and ignoring input from the Commons > community and ignoring community policies. [affirmed] > * The Commons community condemns Jimbo's actions but has no power at all > to stop the "Founder"-flagged berserk. [affirmed] > > Is this the story? Or are there any story arcs that I missed? Please > correct me, wherever I am wrong. > > Marcus Buck > User:Slomox > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJL5LdTAAoJEHCAuDvx9Z6LfGEIANYli6roFaZJOqXv5j/rvE3B D/9B7VLzyEn86tkWYOACz+k+Ngj9mORGKwdVSDKYhwNdx/ek3SuW87lwp/l2ORhA e16SsFbzPTTE0dDewvMfK2aEGjgPpK15AmV02Z3X12PeQJCO76fnjH9aKedBdvns BZnk3hv53OSIq194bizkTk82GYWClc7wvXX6jnvc0dtOWEetm8PdM3D9q4Gpuzuh Bgqa+mMx3WVOuUywRVGGQQMQ3L/xF4aisMHYgDP19rtnV9mNz4m4v8r9joGP7lP8 Bq2zEO8KeoTU5Yjb3sPLA66yz8vsJ0YCixhQIvP3Y+qGwETm84x3wr4Hbt7pOzQ= =3wP0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l