Afterthought x 3: - WMF and its staff should probably have an explicit understanding that they often need to bend for community approaches and collaboration, and expectations (rather than the other way round).
*Rationale: -* WMF needs to ensure that staff know "good ways" to work with the community. It's not symmetrical: a legal body can have meetings and executive decisions, and everyone understands how they work and their meaning. But the community doesn't have that kind of process and resists being shoehorned if its own (inchoate) ways are not respected. Community expectations probably include transparency, deliberation, and "expectation management", ie no (unpleasant+sudden) surprises. Most people know this but somehow it failed here. That was avoidable. Community expectations are nowhere summarized, nor how to meet them, nor what we * collectively* feel should happen when faced with a "WMF decision that someone feels must be done". If it can be perceived as lapsed or breached this easily *despite* staff awareness, then we need to set it out, not assume it, for all our good. - The community needs to appreciate that WMF sometimes has to make these decisions. A mature appreciation of WMF role and position would include agreement if possible that the need can arise, which kinds of issues might appropriately need a unilateral decision, and how it should take place. We should agree some kind of reliable guidance however short to say what WMF staff can do or might be expected to have tried doing, and what's needed in communication or action to minimize any discord. - Last, even if there had been transparency and consultation in the recent matter, there is still a sense by some volunteers that the "done deal" element was in its own right, inappropriate or inept. So transparency and consultation alone may not be all that's needed. What else is needed probably ought to be worked out on Meta so it isn't just limited to list subscribers. FT2 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
