On vulvas and assholes, by Sue Gardner Options

[thekohser]

Sue Gardner actually talks some sense here, but I kind of choked when she (the one who refuses to say how much the WMF paid the consulting firm to handle the donors survey) noted:

we’ve become an echo chamber: we hear only voices like our own, expressing points of view we already agree with. People who believe other things fall silent or abandon the conversation or are reduced to impotent rage.

Disclose the amount paid to Q2 Consulting, Sue, and then we'll let you start taking credit for your cogent interpretations of what's going on all around you, on your watch.

[Kelly Martin]

Indeed, it took guts for her to write that. She is calling the Wikipedia communities collectively a bunch of irresponsible children, and they're not going to like that, not one bit. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

[EricBarbour]

Indeed, it took guts for her to write that. She is calling the Wikipedia communities collectively a bunch of irresponsible children, and they're not going to like that, not one bit. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Fine, but how long has she been WMF director? Almost four years?

And she's just beginning to realize the place is run by arrogant little boys??

Evidently she hasn't read the timeline.

I'd be happy to offer some excerpts.

February 6th
Five Wikipedia administrators are removed of their "duties" by Jimbo Wales after a Wikipedia-War erupts over userboxes. Userboxes are decorative images that editors use to identify themselves on their editor pages. A userbox was created by User:Paroxysm and stated that the user "identifies as a pedophile". Wikipedia libertarians who supported the userbox battled against those who found it distasteful.
April 19th
Danny Wool indefinitely blocks Eric Möller (Eloquence (T-C-L-K-R-D) ) for "reckless endangerment -- OFFICE". After some too-ing and fro-ing, Jimmy Wales unblocks Möller the same day. Wool, a paid employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, had "stubbed" and protected two articles while representing WP:OFFICE, which means that he is acting under the authority of the Wikimedia Foundation to resolve urgent legal problems. Möller, a researcher for the Wikimedia Foundation and partner of board member Angela Beesley, unprotected the same articles without discussion.
June 19th
Astrophysicist Bernard Haisch attempts to clarify bad edits made to his biography and is confronted by an anonymous editor KSmrq (T-C-L-K-R-D) who writes, "You do not get to choose whether or not an article on you appears in Wikipedia, and you have no veto power over its contents. The article can cast you as a genius or an imbecile, a respected scientist or a crackpot. [...] Wikipedia does not operate by ''your'' rules, but by its own conventions; I suggest you learn to accept it. " Haisch described his experience in the New York Times.
August 2nd
Numerous dates of death are mischievously added to biographies of living retired US baseball players. The falsehoods are discovered only after shocked relatives had contacted players themselves.
September 25th
Erik Möller replaces Angela Beesley on the Wikimedia Foundation board after an election process later described as a "disgrace" by Beesley. The election was marred by leaks, a "list of endorsement" by Möller, and controversial interventions by Jimmy Wales.
October 26th
The 'MONGO Arbitration case' comes to a close, and sets a precedent for the 'BADSITES' disputes which dominate the site for two years. The decision allows for the removal of links to sites that host criticisms of Wikipedians, regardless of whether they were relevant or on internal project pages.
December 4th
Angela Beesley creates a mailing list and an external wiki for use exclusively by female Wikipedia editors, called WikiChix. Due to the approved culture of secrecy and fake identities that dominates Wikipedia, the list inevitably becomes infiltrated by males disguising themselves as female editors.

And that was just from 2006.....

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: