On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 8:23 AM, Craig Franklin <cr...@halo-17.net> wrote: > I thought Thomas's requests and suggestions in this case were quite valid > and reasonable, and they did not deserve such a condescending and > passive-aggressive response. > > I'm sure you're all very busy but that's no excuse for not continually > striving for a higher standard of transparency and accountability (within > the obvious restrictions that your work imposes). > > Regards, > Craig Franklin
This might be a digression, but I'm fairly new to this list and would like a clarification. What's the decision-making process within the WMF on issues such as this (a request from the community to document a WMF process)? I understand how processes are implemented (or not), and how tasks are done (or not) on en.wikipedia, but I don't yet understand the relationship between community requests (or requests from individuals in the community) and WMF processes and tasks. What are the expectations for WMF employees' response to a request such as this -- presumably they can assess it and say no if they feel that's appropriate? Is it part of their job description to communicate via lists such as this, and justify their decisions? I don't have a strong opinion on this particular request -- I spent years as a corporate ombudsman and so I understand the concerns about privacy and confidentiality, but the request seems reasonable. However, if Thomas feels that it's not as important as other tasks that he has been given to do, what's the expectation -- that he should post an explanation, but is not obliged to do the task? I suppose this is a special case of a general question: presumably WMF employees have two masters -- the decisions of the board, which should trickle down into directives to each group and employee, and prevailing consensus in the communities, which may occasionally conflict with those directives, or which may lead to vocal minority dissent. I have seen a couple of examples of this in practice but I don't have a clear idea of how those conflicts ought to be resolved. Mike _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l