Talk:Wikimania 2022/Scholarships/Wikimeetup of Wikimedians in Bangladesh during Wikimania/Report

Is it a joke, dear?

I asked something loooong ago here. I know that I may have been chilly there, but this affiliate is seriously acting suspiciously. I have gathered a lot of evidence that suggests that it is abusing its affiliate status and establishing a monopoly among the local wikimedia movement.

While I was addressing their unprofessional actions, some of the affiliate leaders (who are also members of the executive committee and the event's core organizing team) misbehaved and mocked me online. After I posted these messages on the aforementioned talk page, I even started to experience harassment from other volunteers who were involved in the event and intimately connected to this affiliate. These instances even had an impact on my personal life. I worry that this affiliate has established a monopoly (I'll say it again) and built a puppet community to help them in doing so. The puppet community helps it in target bullying while keeping the affiliate clean. I've also heard that people connected to this affiliate cornered a lot of community members who were unhappy with this affiliate's activities and those volunteers are not active in the local movement now for a strange reason. This affiliate has literally zero transparency, in fact, the general members don't even know what is happening inside the affiliate. As a general member, I didn't receive any invitations to any events other than the annual general meeting last year, where I was asked to vote to renew the then existing executive committee without being given any introduction. Why all the secrecy? What's going on within this affiliate? Who is accountable for the affiliates' actions? If someone uses WMF's name or visual identity in an improper manner, WMF cannot shirk their obligation.

Don't you think I should have received at least one response to my concerns on the grant talk page? I'm sorry, but it's really careless and unprofessional to not respond to any grant talk. I'm drawing attention of @User:DSaroyan (WMF) or User:THasan (WMF) or whoever responsible here. All these things are being done using the affiliate status and wmf's visual and naming identities, in fact our movement's resources, which are being collected showing our volunteer work. BIDROHI ^Hello.. 05:41, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi BIDROHI, thanks for writing here and tagging me. It is unfortunate to know that the Wikimedia activities are affecting your personal well-being. If you would like to reach out to the Trust and Safety team to discuss these issues, I will be happy to provide contact and make introductions. I would like to recommend that you must reach out to Wikimedia Bangladesh's executive committee and try to engage with them regarding the issues that you have raised against the affiliate. If you do not think that engagement with Wikimedia Bangladesh is possible or it might in anyway cause you distress, I suggest that you reach out to the Affcom for further discussions.

Regarding the Wikimeetup of Wikimedians in Bangladesh during Wikimania concerns, we have noted all of the points that you have raised and will ensure that any application coming from the South Asia region in general and from Bangladesh in particular shall be assessed for a) inclusion of Wikimedians for design and implementation of the event b) announcement across relevant mailing lists and village pump c) documentation of the process for selection of participants and awarding of scholarships. Apologies that there has been a delay in providing this reply.THasan (WMF) (talk) 08:22, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the response, User:THasan (WMF).

I'll keep your suggestions in mind and will think about my next steps of course.

I really appreciate the action item list you prepared for the evaluation of next grant proposals. But in my opinion, not all the proposals need explicit announcement in particularly bnwiki community village pump. For example, if someone from the region applies for a technical or research or other sort of specialized project that has nothing to do with the bnwiki community, they should inform the relevant community first. (wikimedia research mailing list for research proposal, mediawiki for tech project for example) But please ensure proper accountability towards the community if the grantee explicitly mentions the community's name in their grant proposal. If anyone explicitly mentions that they are going to include bnwiki community volunteers, their process of inclusion should be as flawless and transparent as possible. BIDROHI ^Hello.. 15:06, 25 January 2023 (UTC)