Out with Godwin, In with the new sycophant Options Rating

[thekohser]

This seems very, very, very, very, very fishy to me.

How does a non-profit 501-c-3 that files a Form 990 intend to keep secret, forever, a severance package for one of the top paid employees of the organization?

What rotten thing is going on here?

(Original and official announcement is here.)

This post has been edited by thekohser: Tue 19th October 2010, 7:53pm

[NuclearWarfare]

Quite interesting that they wrote up a Q&A summary that anticipated most of the usual questions. Have they done that before?

[GlassBeadGame]

Quite interesting that they wrote up a Q&A summary that anticipated most of the usual questions. Have they done that before?

I did not heretofore understand that FAQ meant Frequently Avoided Questions.

...and three days notice? WTF?

I'm currently reading an account of the Tlatelolco Massacre of '68. After the event one of the students described the way they read the newspapers as "Why is my government telling me this particular lie at this particular moment?"

[Kevin]

Quite interesting that they wrote up a Q&A summary that anticipated most of the usual questions. Have they done that before?

I did not heretofore understand that FAQ meant Frequently Avoided Questions.

...and three days notice? WTF?

I'm currently reading an account of the Tlatelolco Massacre of '68. After the event one of the students described the way they read the newspapers as "Why is my government telling me this particular lie at this particular moment?"

3 days notice and a severance package tells me that he was pushed, and pushed hard. And the list of things that are not the reason leave a lot less to speculate on.

[TungstenCarbide]

meh ... sounds like he got laid off - fired without cause.

Since when do people who quit get severance packages.

I suppose the unprofessional and childish public letter to the FBI didn't help.

[Kelly Martin]

meh ... sounds like he got laid off - fired without cause.

That's the official line, of course. But the reality is that he was shoved out the door for being incompatible with Sue's vision of what Wikimedia is about.

It'll be interesting whether Erik gets shoved next. He's pretty much the last of "Jimmy's people" (defined as people who were part of the Foundation before Sue came along). Jimmy himself better be watching his back; it's a matter of time before Sue and Company decide that he, too, is redundant.

[Milton Roe]

meh ... sounds like he got laid off - fired without cause.

That's the official line, of course. But the reality is that he was shoved out the door for being incompatible with Sue's vision of what Wikimedia is about.

It'll be interesting whether Erik gets shoved next. He's pretty much the last of "Jimmy's people" (defined as people who were part of the Foundation before Sue came along). Jimmy himself better be watching his back; it's a matter of time before Sue and Company decide that he, too, is redundant.

Indeed. In a sense, you pay taxes (whether on income or property) as the price of having the government recognize you as the OWNER, with owners' rights (or at least title rights). If you don't pay the taxes, you don't get that.

By refusing to own anything you can escape both taxes and legal risk (the risk of lawsuit from an unrelated civil suit back in 2001 apprently being ultimately why Jimmy does not own Wikipedia today).

But all this comes with a penalty.

[Doc glasgow]

Why is Mike leaving the Wikimedia Foundation?

Mike leaving the Wikimedia Foundation is a confidential
issue, and the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t talk about confidential
personnel issues with anyone except the people directly involved. We
want to handle this kind of thing with respect for people’s privacy
and dignity, and we are hopeful we can do that in this instance. That
means, we’re not going to answer this question, and we hope you will
understand why.

That says to me "fired, but we gave him a settlement in return for his silence".

The usual mantra is "mutual agreement" or "personal reasons" but this says "personnel", which looks to me like "fired for cause".