I agree with Harel, there are huge numbers of editors who are entitled to vote and don't do so. I think we put some effort into welcoming newbies and forget that becoming part of the community is a process and state of mind rather than a single event.
I think that a bot message from Jimbo or the foundation thanking people for their 500th edit and saying that they are now entitled to vote in trustee elections could be a very good way to build the community. You'd need to phrase it carefully though:) WereSpielChequers ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:32:35 +0200 > From: Harel Cain <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 2011 Board Elections: Input needed > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Before we start extending the right to vote to ever wider groups of people, > we should ask ourselves how much this right is exercised by those already > entitled to it, and how many of those proposed to be granted the right to > vote are expected to really make use of it. > > The last elections saw a participation of a few thousand of voters, just a > small proportion of all the people eligible to vote, and I guess these could > be split roughly into those who really are into foundation-level and > meta-level issues and those who were (legitimately) recruited from among the > home projects of the candidates without too much real interest in the > elections. Whoever didn't fall into these two categories rarely voted, and I > anticipate the same will hold true for the new groups you proposed in your > mail. > > The real question we should ask ourselves is how to make these elections > more relevant and important for those groups of people already entitled to > take part in them. > > > Harel Cain > Hebrew Wikipedia / Wikimedia Israel > > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
