On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Nathan <[email protected]> wrote: > Pine says no one suggested firing Gayle or Philippe; I think it's > clear that whatever semantics are invoked, he did suggest just that. > That's beyond inappropriate, in my view, and an example of the toxic > environment that will lead to less fruitful communication from the WMF > and not more. It's not in Pine's remit as a volunteer to propose that > WMF employees be demoted, especially over something as picayune as > administrator rights on a wiki with minimal traffic and less > importance. > > It's unfathomable that Pine thinks he should be writing to Gayle in > this way, as if he were her superior and she was obligated to justify > her continued employment to him personally. In multiple comments in > recent posts Pine has implied that he has real-world expertise in this > area... at this point, I find that implication unsupported by evidence > of communication skills or the ability to appropriately judge context > and audience reaction. > > It's not traditional to so directly call out a commenter on this list > for posts that step over the line, particularly when they remain civil > despite being wildly inappropriate. But I think we need to understand > that the relationship between volunteers (especially those on the > mailing lists) and the WMF is a two way street. We can't expect them > to engage better with us if we permit, even by silence, this type of > haranguing to continue unchallenged. >
I agree with this; thanks for saying it. ==about communication in general== I think it's worth remembering we all judge each other on the tone and content of messages that we send here (some sending pseudonymously, some not). Sometimes I think many of us feel comfortable in saying things that we might think privately or say casually to a friend, without thinking about how: a) hundreds of people, including people who have spent years and years devoted to this work (staff and volunteers alike) may read it and be affected*; b) these messages are how our own reputations get shaped online, both good and bad; c) we all just have one perspective on Wikimedia, shaped by our own experience, which is not necessarily the same as everyone else's. -- phoebe * I've had plenty of bad days because of the way Wikimedia-l threads made me feel about our projects, and plenty of good ones too. I'm not alone in this. -- * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers <at> gmail.com * _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
