Mailing List Archive

Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements
On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 3:02 PM, Philippe Beaudette
<philippebeaudette@gmail.com> wrote:
> The 2008 Board election committee announces the 2008 election process. Wikimedians will have the opportunity to elect one candidate from the Wikimedia community to serve as a representative on the Board of Trustees. The successful candidate will serve a one-year term, ending in July 2009.

Thanks Phillipe for the announcement and thanks to the election
committee for their work!

I have one concern about the new requirement that voters must have 50
edits between April 1->June 1 on their voting project, as well as the
old total edit requirement, in order to gain suffrage in this year's
election.

To quote the election information page:

"You may vote from any one registered account you own on a Wikimedia
wiki (you may only vote once, regardless of how many accounts you
own). To qualify, this one account must:
* not be blocked, and
* not be a bot, and
* have made at least 600 edits before 01 March 2008 on that wiki
(edits on several wikis cannot be combined), and
* have made at least 50 edits between 01 April and 01 June 2008 on
that wiki."

I know several previously very active editors, people I would consider
core Wikimedians who know the projects as well as anyone, that happen
to be taking a wikibreak this spring -- and this new requirement would
disenfranchise them. I can't imagine this was your intent.
This problem is compounded by the fact that a) April is already almost
over, leaving people just a month to get their edits in; b) the
editors most affected by this may not be paying attention to these
early election notices (but will want to vote when the time comes); c)
since we have not had this requirement in previous elections, it is
unlikely that people will be expecting it.

I have two suggestions:
Either
a) drop this part of the requirement
or
b) start a site notice now for logged-in users on all projects,
reminding them of the candidacy cut-off date and suffrage requirements
for the election.

A site notice, if not already planned for, is probably useful anyway
as potential candidates may not read the mailing list or catch the
election posts to it.

thanks!
-- phoebe

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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:46 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod@mccme.ru> wrote:
> I generally do not regard the requirement as a problem, but would you
> please elaborate how do you plan to carry out the proposal (b)? Just force
> every project to put the announcement? In English? If not, who is going to
> translate it in all languages?
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav

There are often project-wide sitenotices for things like the elections
and Wikimania. As I understand it translation is generally coordinated
on meta, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests.

Obviously this would be a big piece of work to do, but I would be very
much surprised if there wasn't going to be some sort of sitenotice
about the elections at some point, especially when voting starts.

-- phoebe

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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:35 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:

> I know several previously very active editors, people I would consider
> core Wikimedians who know the projects as well as anyone, that happen
> to be taking a wikibreak this spring -- and this new requirement would
> disenfranchise them. I can't imagine this was your intent.
> This problem is compounded by the fact that a) April is already almost
> over, leaving people just a month to get their edits in; b) the
> editors most affected by this may not be paying attention to these
> early election notices (but will want to vote when the time comes); c)
> since we have not had this requirement in previous elections, it is
> unlikely that people will be expecting it.<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l>
>

Agreed. I would urge the Committee to reconsider this requirement; if
necessary, expand the requirement to 50 edits over the last 12 months.

--
[[User:Ral315]]
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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
I generally do not regard the requirement as a problem, but would you
please elaborate how do you plan to carry out the proposal (b)? Just force
every project to put the announcement? In English? If not, who is going to
translate it in all languages?

Cheers
Yaroslav

> On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 3:02 PM, Philippe Beaudette
> <philippebeaudette@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The 2008 Board election committee announces the 2008 election process.
>> Wikimedians will have the opportunity to elect one candidate from the
>> Wikimedia community to serve as a representative on the Board of
>> Trustees. The successful candidate will serve a one-year term, ending in
>> July 2009.
>
> Thanks Phillipe for the announcement and thanks to the election
> committee for their work!
>
> I have one concern about the new requirement that voters must have 50
> edits between April 1->June 1 on their voting project, as well as the
> old total edit requirement, in order to gain suffrage in this year's
> election.
>
> To quote the election information page:
>
> "You may vote from any one registered account you own on a Wikimedia
> wiki (you may only vote once, regardless of how many accounts you
> own). To qualify, this one account must:
> * not be blocked, and
> * not be a bot, and
> * have made at least 600 edits before 01 March 2008 on that wiki
> (edits on several wikis cannot be combined), and
> * have made at least 50 edits between 01 April and 01 June 2008 on
> that wiki."
>
> I know several previously very active editors, people I would consider
> core Wikimedians who know the projects as well as anyone, that happen
> to be taking a wikibreak this spring -- and this new requirement would
> disenfranchise them. I can't imagine this was your intent.
> This problem is compounded by the fact that a) April is already almost
> over, leaving people just a month to get their edits in; b) the
> editors most affected by this may not be paying attention to these
> early election notices (but will want to vote when the time comes); c)
> since we have not had this requirement in previous elections, it is
> unlikely that people will be expecting it.
>
> I have two suggestions:
> Either
> a) drop this part of the requirement
> or
> b) start a site notice now for logged-in users on all projects,
> reminding them of the candidacy cut-off date and suffrage requirements
> for the election.
>
> A site notice, if not already planned for, is probably useful anyway
> as potential candidates may not read the mailing list or catch the
> election posts to it.
>
> thanks!
> -- phoebe
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>



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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:45 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:46 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod@mccme.ru> wrote:
> > I generally do not regard the requirement as a problem, but would you
> > please elaborate how do you plan to carry out the proposal (b)? Just force
> > every project to put the announcement? In English? If not, who is going to
> > translate it in all languages?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Yaroslav
>
> There are often project-wide sitenotices for things like the elections
> and Wikimania. As I understand it translation is generally coordinated
> on meta, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests.
>
> Obviously this would be a big piece of work to do, but I would be very
> much surprised if there wasn't going to be some sort of sitenotice
> about the elections at some point, especially when voting starts.

Sorry, there's a better translation page just for the elections here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008/Translation

-- phoebe

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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
phoebe ayers wrote:
> I know several previously very active editors, people I would consider
> core Wikimedians who know the projects as well as anyone, that happen
> to be taking a wikibreak this spring -- and this new requirement would
> disenfranchise them. I can't imagine this was your intent.
> This problem is compounded by the fact that a) April is already almost
> over, leaving people just a month to get their edits in; b) the
> editors most affected by this may not be paying attention to these
> early election notices (but will want to vote when the time comes); c)
> since we have not had this requirement in previous elections, it is
> unlikely that people will be expecting it.
>
April to June is also a heavy exam period in some countries, many users
who are students (which makes up a fair amount of the community) may
have issues as there time would be dedicated towards studying rather
than contributing to the various wikis. It seams unfair to restrict such
users from voting, many of whom are very active community members.

MinuteElectron.


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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
Well, I am involved in the translation, but my understanding is this is
only going to stay on meta. Anyway, the point is obviously taken by the
Election Committee.

Cheers
Yaroslav

> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:45 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:46 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod@mccme.ru>
>> wrote:
>> > I generally do not regard the requirement as a problem, but would you
>> > please elaborate how do you plan to carry out the proposal (b)? Just
>> force
>> > every project to put the announcement? In English? If not, who is
>> going to
>> > translate it in all languages?
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Yaroslav
>>
>> There are often project-wide sitenotices for things like the elections
>> and Wikimania. As I understand it translation is generally coordinated
>> on meta, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests.
>>
>> Obviously this would be a big piece of work to do, but I would be very
>> much surprised if there wasn't going to be some sort of sitenotice
>> about the elections at some point, especially when voting starts.
>
> Sorry, there's a better translation page just for the elections here:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008/Translation
>
> -- phoebe
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>



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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
I agree. I didn't even know I was eligible to vote until someone sent me an email.



----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Snow <wikipedia@verizon.net>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 9:59:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements

phoebe ayers wrote:
> I have two suggestions:
> Either
> a) drop this part of the requirement
> or
> b) start a site notice now for logged-in users on all projects,
> reminding them of the candidacy cut-off date and suffrage requirements
> for the election.
>
> A site notice, if not already planned for, is probably useful anyway
> as potential candidates may not read the mailing list or catch the
> election posts to it.

If there's a need to give people notices, this could also be a good time
to prompt some of the people who took an interest during the last
election in identifying eligible voters and delivering messages to them.
That might even be more effective than using the site notice. And with
the data-crunching and mass-notifications started earlier, hopefully
that work wouldn't draw some of the objections from last time. (By
saying this I'm not trying to favor b) over a); my comment applies even
if a notice isn't required for this particular issue.)

--Michael Snow


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Re: Official Election Notice -- concerns about suffrage requirements [ In reply to ]
2008/4/29, Jesse Martin (Pathoschild) <pathoschild@gmail.com>:
> Michael Snow <wikipedia@verizon.net> wrote:
> > If there's a need to give people notices, this could also be a good time
> > to prompt some of the people who took an interest during the last
> > election in identifying eligible voters and delivering messages to them.
>
> Please don't send out emails. The elections committee will probably
> send out notification by email to all eligible voters (this is under
> discussion right now). The emails will be translated on
> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008/Translation> with
> other board elections pages.
>
> --
> Yours cordially,
> Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild)
>
I agree, individuals sending emails is about one of the worst things
to do here imho... (creating not only bias but also it always looks
like the person sending out wants to promote one or certain
candidates) If sent at all, only by the committee imho.

Lodewijk

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