While I often agree with you, Yair Rand, in this case I think you're mistaken. Aside from the long-ago "community vote" on licensing (which was pretty much required based on the prior licensing scheme), every Wikimedia-wide policy has been authorized by the WMF Board of Trustees. That includes the terms of use and the privacy policy. As the technical owners of the infrastructure, the WMF Board does have the right (if not the responsibility) to identify the manner in which the websites it supports and hosts can be used, and I think this principle is actually pretty widely held, at least in the abstract (i.e., hosting organizations can and should apply standards on the services they host). In every policy-related case that I have reviewed going back to the very earliest days, there has been at least some level of community discussion, and there have always been detractors of every policy the Board has approved; that has not made the policies either invalid or unworkable.
I've never been convinced that including a mixture of required, forbidden, and aspirational standards all in one document is a good idea, and I personally struggle to see how including essentially unenforceable aspects of the UCoC will do anything other than weaken the effectiveness of rest of the document. For example, I cannot imagine anyone being sanctioned in any way for "failure to thank" or "failure to mentor", although both of these are considered expectations in the "Civility" section; and one thing that a Uniform Code of Conduct would logically have is a uniform enforcement scheme. Nonetheless, I do believe that it is within the Board's scope and responsibility to approve this and other global policies designed to protect the WMF, the projects, the users of the websites, and the content managers/editors/etc (what we often call "the community"). Risker/Anne On Tue, 2 Feb 2021 at 17:28, Yair Rand <[email protected]> wrote: > The community has not approved the WMF's UCoC. It is not a Wikimedia > policy, it is not binding, it has no authority. The WMF does not control > the Wikimedia projects, and has no jurisdiction in this area. > > The community rejected this over and over again. It is harmful that the > Board is pretending they can do this unilaterally. > > -- Yair Rand > > בתאריך יום ג׳, 2 בפבר׳ 2021 ב-6:59 מאת María Sefidari < > [email protected]>: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> I’m pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has unanimously >> approved a Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia projects and >> movement.[1] A Universal Code of Conduct was one of the final >> recommendations of the Movement Strategy 2030 process - a multi-year, >> participatory community effort to define the future of our movement. The >> final Universal Code of Conduct seeks to address disparities in conduct >> policies across our hundreds of projects and communities, by creating a >> binding minimum set of standards for conduct on the Wikimedia projects that >> directly address many of the challenges that contributors face. >> >> The Board is deeply grateful to the communities who have grappled with >> these challenging topics. Over the past six months, communities around the >> world have participated in conversations and consultations to help build >> this code collectively, including local discussions in 19 languages, >> surveys, discussions on Meta, and policy drafting by a committee of >> volunteers and staff. The document presented to us reflects a significant >> investment of time and effort by many of you, and especially by the joint >> staff/volunteer committee who created the base draft after reviewing input >> collected from community outreach efforts. We also appreciate the >> dedication of the Foundation, and its Trust & Safety policy team, in >> getting us to this phase. >> >> This was the first phase of our Universal Code of Conduct - from here, >> the Trust & Safety team will begin consultations on how best to enforce >> this code. In the coming weeks, they will follow-up with more instructions >> on how you can participate in discussions around enforcing the new code. >> Over the next few months, they will be facilitating consultation >> discussions in many local languages, with our affiliates, and on Meta to >> support a new volunteer/staff committee in drafting enforcement pathways. >> For more information on the process, timeline, and how to participate in >> this next phase, please review the Universal Code of Conduct page on >> Meta.[2] >> >> The Universal Code of Conduct represents an essential step towards our >> vision of a world in which all people can participate in the sum of all >> knowledge. Together, we have built something extraordinary. Today, we >> celebrate this milestone in making our movement a safer space for >> contribution for all. >> >> On behalf of the Board of Trustees, >> >> María Sefidari >> Board Chair >> >> [1] >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Draft_review >> >> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> New messages to: [email protected] >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >
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