I'm generally in favor of Jimmy's leadership, or the idea of project leadership in general. See my March 27 post opposing the poll to remove his Founder flag, on meta. I'm also strongly in favor of reform in the area of sexually explicit imagery on Commons and other projects, see the many threads I've started or participated in over the past three years on this subject. A week ago, I would have said I'd very much like to see Jimmy's leadership in this particular area.
On the other hand, leadership is more than taking unilateral action. It's more than power, and more than authority. If Jimmy had explained himself fully, perhaps with a statement very similar to what Mike has written in this thread, the reaction would have been much more muted. He may have had active assistance from the Commons community instead of active opposition and an angry backlash. The "GodKing" status is the result of political capital; the goal should be to provide leadership while expending as little of that as necessary, because once it's gone it's gone for good - c.f. Jimmy's relinquishing of certain rights on the English Wikipedia. Lastly, I think his recent activity has been clumsy and amateurish, particularly prompted as it was by Fox News. For those not familiar with Fox News, its impact and its reputation... The rest of the mainstream media views its claims with suspicion and some degree of disdain, and with good reason. By reacting so aggressively to Fox's counter-factual claims, we make it harder for our allies and responsible journalists to argue and prove that we are not guilty of hosting "child pornography" and tolerating pedophilia. That's too bad - as they say, the coverup is usually worse than the crime. Nathan _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
