Talk:Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2006/FAQ/en

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Questions[edit]

Already answered questions are moved to Election FAQ 2006 subpages.

Is it possible to see summary information about the candidates side by side perhaps in table format? For instance, number of edits, active projects, when joined, admin status? Block log. This would be helpful in informing the vote. AndrewRT (en wikipedia)

Well, if you're willing to coordinate doing so, yes, it certainly could be done; everything here is being done by volunteers, so all that is required is someone willing to set it up and keep it up to date. Essjay (TalkConnect) 06:11, 4 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why doesn't Wiki goes commercial, at least to the extent of allowing few ads via RSS feeds, as this will solve the problem of funds to some extent?

This has nothing to do with this election. Also, there are no funding problems. Jon Harald Søby 14:36, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've had quite some difficulty finding when the election is going to be closed. Could the timeline be added to the FAQ? Thanks, KissL 11:20, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Timeline is described on the first notice. See Election, thanks. --Aphaia 11:42, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

General[edit]

Wrong link[edit]

The link to the talk page in Polish section leads to the wrong page. It leads to the 2005 FAQ (I don't mean the one about last year's elections. I mean the one about this year, to the talk page.) Lo único que les pido es que me den toda mi tarea para asi poder jugar todo el día.Esta es mi pregunta, ¿porque no me resuelven mis tareas a tiempo?

(To reply English part), it is considerablly a simple typo. You may want to fix it to this year page? Thanks. --Aphaia 01:17, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What does the Board do?[edit]

This is the first draft of the agenda for the Board retreat later this year. I think it gives some insight into part of the Board's role. Perhaps this could be turned into an answer to something. Angela 01:05, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Phase I - The Big Picture

Mission
Revisit mission statement
What is in? What is out? What defines us?
What we stand for
Commitment to our ideals
Commitment to our ethical framework
Commitment to our community
What is our vision
...for the world we want to help create
...of the goals for our organization
...of the indicia of success we will hold ourselves to

Phase II - Organizational Understanding

What we do at the Board level
Policy
Strategy
Accountability
Understanding Community
Who is our community and why
Giving to and receiving from the community
Unpredictability for the future means...?
Scenario planning is required (1, 2, 5, 8 years?)
Leadership succession planning is required
Community relationships and organization
Other Big Unknowns?
Financial sustainability means...?
Community support
Corporate support
Foundation support
External relationships
Marketing?
Books, movies, etc.?
"Partnerships?"
The public face of the Foundation

Candidacy discussions?[edit]

Is there a place to discuss candidates, candidacies, and platforms before the vote? Most other Wiki processes (RFA, AFD, etc.) specifically try to gather consensus, and avoid a vote without discussion, per the popular essays Don't vote on everything and Wikipedia:Voting is evil. While, in the end, this is an election, and will come down to a vote, is there a place to try and voice opinions and discuss beforehand? Sort of the equivalent of a town meeting or debate? AnonEMouse 14:49, 14 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Number of vote[edit]

Can we vote for more than one candidate? Kipmaster 07:47, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I found the answer: "You may vote for as many candidates as you want." Kipmaster 11:03, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ability to Vote[edit]

Please excuse, but am I eligible to vote? I am a registered user of "Wikipedia" and "Wikimedia" but am largely inactive at the latter.--Anglius 03:00, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you follow the link to vote, the wikisoftware will tell you, when you are not elegible. Else you can vote, if you want to.
I thank you, sir.--Anglius 01:59, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also, please remark you cannot vote twice, even if you have two vote-eligible accounts. --Aphaia 02:23, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vote: per person or per user account[edit]

The vote is per person or per user account? Special:Boardvote/list have lots of duplicate votes (someone1@xxwiki, someone1@xxwikinews, someone1@xxwikibooks ....) 555 01:21, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Per person. --Aphaia 02:24, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to inspect my own votes?[edit]

Is there a way that lets me see how I voted? --Purodha 10:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Visit Special:Boardvote and click "List votes to date". You will get the list of all voters until then. --Aphaia 02:38, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think there's a way to see which candidates you voted for, unless you copied the confirmation message following your vote, but you may always vote again from the same project where you voted initially; from my understanding, this will always supercede your previous vote. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 22:16, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Flcelloguy. A perfect answer. I'll put this dialogue to the FAQ. Thank you for input, Purodha and Flcelloguy :) --Aphaia 14:40, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How are multiple votes handled[edit]

I voted several times in a row, each time for a different candidate. Since we can vote for as many as we choose, are these individual single votes for each them now accumulated? --Purodha 10:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you vote twice from a same wiki, your previous vote will be stroke automatically. --Aphaia 02:40, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds to me like Purodha submitted the vote form several times in a row, selecting one candidate each time. This is an understandable mistake, but an incorrect way to vote, although the current software setup (allowing people to change their votes) allows this. It needs to be made clearer in the FAQ and voting instructions that you need to select all the candidates you want to support on the one form, and that any resubmitting of the form will wipe out the previous vote(s). Carcharoth 15:34, 4 September 2006

Votes in several wikies[edit]

Accounts in several wikies allow me to vote. Just for fun I tried that, and it seemed to work. Since I feel that is not just, I want to make sure that only one counts. How? --Purodha 10:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot cancel them by yourself, only the Election Officers can cancel a vote. I would be happy if you wouldn't tried that just for fun ; for convinience (and considering your other comments), I'll remove all your votes. After that, pleaes vote once again. For voting for plural candidates, you have to access the interface only once and check every candidate you want to vote. Not as many access as the number of your favorites. Thank you and happy voting! --Aphaia 02:28, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly changing terms during the vote / unclear announcements[edit]

One wiki says there is only one position to vote for now, another says two, here on meta I read that a decsion has yet to be made to include more positions in this voting process. I feel bad thinking of those who already voted thus for them is all done, so they would possibly not notice a later chance. So please be quick making up your minds, or fo god's sake hold another voting later! --Purodha 10:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Only one position (the remainder of the seat vacated by current Board member Angela Beesley) is up for election; any other information is erroneous and should either have been updated (as in the case of the elections notice) or changed by now. If not, please rectify it immediately. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 22:14, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Weighing votes?[edit]

I want to support several candidates, but there is a clear order of preference. Only if not my candidate no. one was being ahead of the gang, I would perfer candidate no. two to make it and so on. I do not want my additional vote for my no. two to potentially help spoil sucess of my no. one! But if there are two or more voters like me, exactly this may happen with the current system of counting votes, if I correctly understood it. Does not seem possible to priorize votes, does it? --Purodha 10:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, in this voting, you cannot weigh your vote. You can vote for each candidate, and that's all. Discussions about voting itself will be welcome at foundation-l. --Aphaia 02:30, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why don't we use Choice Voting for all future Wikimedia Elections?[edit]

Choice voting protects majority rule while providing for the fair representation of minority views. Voters rank the candidates 1, 2, 3, and so on, in order of preference. If your top choice either is not elected or already has enough votes to win a seat, your vote goes to your next choice. No vote is wasted, and all viewpoints are represented. Choice voting would drastically reduce the number of wasted votes.

Choice voting can be used for single or multiple position elections. It is used for national elections in a number of countries including the Republic of Ireland. It is also used by a wide variety of organsations such as students' unions, charities, trade unions, universities, hospital trusts and housing associations. Choice voting is already used to elect the board of Nominet UK.

Choice voting is also called preference voting or single transferable vote (STV)

If you support my proposal or would like to find out more please leave a message on my talk page.

John Cross 11:43, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Do I have enough 'good points' to be able to vote ?[edit]

I have not looked at last years questions and answers session yet, but unless the answers are there, it surprises me that everybody seems to know if they are eligible for voting or not according to their 'edit-count'? I might be too dim, and probably don't have enough edits anyway, but I admit, I have no idea. Can somebody tell me where the 'point-coounts' are kept? LouisBB 17:12, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'ven't checked that, but I am pretty confident that your edit count is just computed with a data base query in the moment when you access the voting page - if it's not sufficient you are redirected to a message explaining the two conditions to be met, otherwise you're presented a voting form. Since I have accounts in several wikis, some of which allow me to vote, while others do not, I was able to see them both. -- Purodha Blissenbach 17:48, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am confused, how do we actually vote?[edit]

    • Go to the local project where you are eligible to vote and have suffrage (i.e. for example, if you have more than 400 edits and meet all the criteria on the English Wikipedia, then you go to that project) and proceed to Special:Boardvote on that project (you may also click the link in the sitenotice on that local project). Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 22:11, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Since there will only be one person elected, I tweaked the section "To what term will the new member(s) be elected ?" a bit. // habj 11:22, 28 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It makes a sense. Thank you! --Aphaia 11:28, 28 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is terribly subtle. I should rather expect a large blinking notice on every project, reading "This way to the voting booth!" The lack of such a notice may affect the fairness of the election. --151.197.34.116 15:21, 7 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Age 18, again[edit]

It says that you cannot join the board of trustees until you are 18, yet it says on the profile of Datrio, an election official, that he was born in 1988 and therefore cannot be older than 17. How did he get the job?

Since the Election Officials are not members of the Board of Trustees as themselves. Thank you! --Aphaia 15:03, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

IP adderesses of schools[edit]

Hello, I am a high school editor, and I am expressing the concern of the immature who ruin it for the rest of us. I have witneesed people randomly mess up articles, and get the school ip blocked in a matter of 1 MINUTE!! How will you help honest editors get around all this?--70.48.215.210 23:26, 6 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid you place your comment in a wrong place. I don't know about which article on which project you are talking. English Wikipidia? Then you may want to go to their Wikipedia:Village pump. Otherwise, go directly to the project you are worried. If you are talking on meta articles, please go to Meta:Babel, our discussion page. Anyway currently your comment seems not to be relevant to this Election and hence I am afraid I cannot do nothing for you. Good luck. --Aphaia 15:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Payment?[edit]

Does the elected person gets money for they future role?

No. See Wikimedia bylaws.--Aphaia 11:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First edit before 00:00, 3 May 2006 ?[edit]

What is the rationale behind this arbitrary first-edit date? Would not the date voting began, or the date candidate entries began, or even the date the resignation was announced, be more appropriate? 15:19, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

The date is 90 days before the voting began; this is to ensure that sockpuppets aren't created just to vote in the election. Jon Harald Søby 15:23, 18 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When will the election results be announced?[edit]

See comment left here. This should probably be added to the FAQ as well. Carcharoth 15:32, 21 September 2006