TL;DR - This is clearly a private personnel matter, but why is the WMF being needlessly secretive about its own official statement?
I became aware that this account had been locked too. And was, naturally enough, very curious what it meant. Although this statement above by James is diplomatically vague, it is clear that this particular lock is an extraordinary action due to the severity of the locks in place. Damon’s log states: “…with an expiry time of indefinite (account creation disabled, autoblock disabled, email disabled, cannot edit own talk page) (edit summary removed)" This is quite different and significantly more stringent than the standard log when an employee leaves, which always states: “…with an expiry time of indefinite (autoblock disabled) (No longer employed with WMF)” I note that ALL logs on this page are for when employees leave the foundation and their account is permanently locked, or, an old employee is rehired and their account is re-activated. None of these are designed as temporary actions. See: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Log/block So, being curious about this, I asked several WMF employees about it. They have all *verbally* told me precisely - to the word - the same thing: “Damon is on two weeks leave.” It is likely that all staff of the WMF have received this official statement, and none but the executives know anything more. Clearly, this is a very significant event that requires an extraordinary degree of care and privacy in handling. This is obviously an employment-related matter, and that comes with serious considerations about handling it delicately. I strongly respect that. HOWEVER, this is what I find really really weird… The statement “Damon is on two weeks leave” is the official statement that all staff have been told, and this is what they were instructed to tell the community if anyone asks. So, when I asked some foundation employees, this is precisely what they told me. BUT, here’s the strange part, no foundation employee is allowed to write the phrase “Damon is on two weeks leave” down in words. It is the official statement of the WMF, and a statement that has been instructed to be shared with the community if they ask, but only by audio, not text. So… as a non-WMF employee who has asked WMF-employees for info, and have received the official response, I am sharing the official response here in writing because they are not allowed to: Damon is on two weeks leave. Like I said above, I am not interested in prying into a matter that is obviously private and sensitive and should remain that way. What I AM interested to know is: on what legal/policy/risk-assessment/rule basis are WMF staff not allowed to put in writing the WMF’s own official statement? - Liam / Wittylama wittylama.com Peace, love & metadata _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
