Hi Micru, On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 7:36 AM, David Cuenca Tudela <dacu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Pine, > It is nice of you that you thought about including these topics in the WMF > strategy process, which I assume it is an ongoing process and not a one-off > event. However as the 2017 cycle ended, I am unable to find the way to > incorporate new ideas into the process. I would have expected to find a > discussion page where new input can be taken into consideration, but it > might not be the case. > > This sounds like another good question for Nicole. > I consider that the importance of admin decline in Wikipedias is really > high, and at the same time I understand why you or anybody else would not > like to do some tasks as volunteer. For this reason, while I do not like > the idea of employees doing project activities, I feel that by creating a > scheme where volunteers become empowered/liberated from work through direct > donations could be part of a practical way of addressing the issue. I'm > very sensitive to potential pitfalls and for this reason I consider that > the feedback given by Yaroslav is extremely important, and that any > donation to volunteers should happen only if they are committed to a > personal transformation, that involves developing the capacity for > listening, humility, and other values important for the project. I think > this is only part of the story so far, and at this point the only thing I > can do in my capacity as volunteer is to steward the conversation, and > bring it to an increasing number of people as the understanding on this > topic increases. > > Thank you for your interest in this issue. I'll make a few further points. * There are a number of people who are working on facilitating and improving the experience for new editors. There are existing projects like the English Wikipedia Teahouse and various help channels. During the 2018-2019 fiscal year, my understanding is that WMF intends to reconstitute the "Growth Team" to attempt to improve the experience of new editors. Mark Miller is the project manager for this, and I am pinging him here in case he would like to comment. Meanwhile, I am working on the project that I previously called LearnWiki <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Motivational_and_educational_video_to_introduce_Wikimedia>, which I plan to re-brand later this year for trademark reasons (eventually I will publish a new name), and in my continuation of the project I am making modifications to the project's original design. I hope that both Mark and I will be able to demonstrate benefits from our work in 2018-2019. * I am very interested in non-WMF funding for affiliate and community projects. As you probably have noticed, I can be outspoken when I have concerns about WMF, and I am worried that if I become financially dependent on WMF then I would be much less willing to express my views out of fear that WMF would eliminate my funding. So, while I want to work on my project which I think would support the community's vision and goals, I would prefer to obtain non-WMF funding. I hope that non-WMF funding could also be available to other community members and affiliates to work on activities which WMF has not funded, such as on-wiki administrative work for which there is significant demand but too little volunteer capacity. I can't make any promises regarding the availability of non-WMF funding for myself or others, but I am having off-wiki conversations about these issues and I hope to be able to report some success within a few years. In the meantime, I think that we are stuck with the status quo, although I am hopeful that in the context of the strategy process that WMF will be supportive of the idea of diversifying funding sources for the community beyond WMF. I am trying go avoid *competing* with WMF for funding, which I think would be viewed negatively by WMF, and instead look for outside sources which WMF has not tapped for funding. I would like to cooperate with WMF where possible, and so I would prefer that my fundraising efforts be "parallel with" rather than "in competition with" WMF efforts. If you or others would be interested, perhaps we could have a video-conference meeting at some point regarding ideas for non-WMF funding sources. Regards, Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > These are difficult topics indeed, but only by dealing with them we can > grow as a movement. > > Regards, > Micru > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Micru ) > > On Mon, May 28, 2018 at 8:10 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Based on the limited information that I have, it seems to me that there > > are already numerous contribtors who are paid to engage in promotional > > activity on Wikipedia, whether declared or undeclared, and the community > > does not have adequate human resources to patrol and investigate all of > > these. I expect that the problem will continue to get worse unless WMF > gets > > more energetic about investigating TOS violations involving undeclared > COI > > and WMF becomes predictable about extracting financial penalties that are > > severe enough to deter most of the undeclared COI contributors. > > Unfortunately, as far as I know, WMF has been largely passive about the > > problem of undeclared COI and has not announced any plans to become more > > aggressive. > > As nice as it would be if everyone could afford and was willing to work > > for free, this is not the case. If it was then we could safely eliminate > > the salaries of the entire WMF staff. However, I think that financial > > support makes sense for some paid staff to handle activities like network > > operations, interface design, legal defense, and responses to safety > > problems. > > Some types of Wikimedia activities are better suited to volunteer work > > than others. I encourage volunteers to avoid burning themselves out; > there > > are some activities that I did in the past that I would not do again as a > > volunteer. Better to be an occasional and long-term contributor than to > get > > burned out. > > I have some ideas about how to pay people to do certain types of work > > that, so far, WMF has not funded. Unfortunately these are merely ideas > and > > not likely to become reality in the short term. Perhaps later this year > or > > in the next few years I will have specific proposals with reasonable > > chances for sustainable success. > > I share the concern that paid participants in the Wikiverse, like staff > of > > WMF and affiliates, WMF grantees, and potentially like the paid > > contributors that I have in mind, may become so numerous that they can > > drown out the consensus of the volunteers. Unfortunately I do not have > easy > > solutions for this issue. We could prohibit all paid contributors from > > participating in RFCs and related decision processes, but we would be > > largely relying on people to self-disclose their paid status, which seems > > unlikely to be adequate. > > Perhaps the issues that we are discussing in this conversation should be > > included in the Structures and Systems prong of the WMF strategy > process. I > > am pinging Nicole to ask for her input about that idea. However, keep in > > mind that the strategy process is financially sponsored by WMF, and it is > > not free of potential conflicts with the interests of WMF. > > I wish that I could be more optimistic. These are difficult topics. > > Regards, > > Pine > > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > null > > _______________________________________________ > > 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: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > -- > Etiamsi omnes, ego non > _______________________________________________ > 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: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?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: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
