Talk:Whom to ask

Sj, this page has quite a few inaccuracies. I can't understand whether the part you wrote is your own goal of what should happen or whether you really think this is the case currently which is why I haven't edited it. Some problems:

"Titled positions within the Wikimedia Foundation, created by the Board (generally based on community support and/or voting): Board members, volunteers with Official positions, and Wikimedia Committee chairs."

Official positions have never been voted on, and there are no committee chairs. This page implies that not only do these chairs exist, but that they got their positions through a vote or consensus.

"Big-D Developers, mailing-list admins, and IRC-admins -- community positions based on demonstrated dedication to the project."

What is a big-D? IRC admins are people approved of by Eloquence. They are not "community positions" and have no relevance to the level of dedication of a user. Are you suggesting that people like Anthere who are not IRC admins have not demonstrated dedication?

"Community positions assigned by Jimbo based on community support and discussion, or elected by vote or consensus of community members : The ENWP Arbitration committee and Mediation committee, Stewards, etc."

There wasn't community support or discussion about the members of the arbcom. Those not on the mailing list didn't even know such positions were available. Jimbo gave the positions to everyone who asked for one.

"Community positions assigned to those interested in taking on certain responsibilities: Ambassadors, ..."

If you mean by ambassadors, the people listed on the embassy pages, then these positions are not assigned. People just sign themselves up for them.

"Unofficial overseers of various WikiProjects -- the Main Page maintainers for each WP, Project organizers, *-of-the-day maintainers, interface designers, self-appointed VfD/Village-Pump/RefDesk maintainers, project-level translation organizers, task-specific bot developers"

This point worries me. Suggesting that certain people are responsible for these pages will only serve to discourage other users from editing them. There is already far too large an impression of ownership of certain pages so proposing such people be officially recognised sounds a dangerous idea.

"Unofficial overseers of various MediaWiki and MetaProjects -- detailed patches being coordinated by a small group of like-minded (small-d) developers, grant writers, press releasers, official-text translators"

What is a MetaProject? There are no "official-text translators".

"The bylaws are a bit confused, and among other things specify some structures which do not exist as such. This should be worked out in the next bylaws revision."

I disagree with your POV about the bylaws and I don't see how it's relevant to this page. You also seem to be implying that things which do not yet exist right now never will, which I don't believe to be the case.

"Active informal structures meriting committees"

I disagree that all the things listed here are active.

"grant materials are being worked on by many including Danny & Gentgeen"

I wouldn't link to the NEH grant considering the deadline was 3 days ago, so no one is working on it anymore.

"Legal Advisors... Not in touch with the WM lawyer."

What legal advisors? And what makes you think they are not in touch with our lawyers?

"...(Volunteer Fire Dept [often crossing language boundaries when there is a transwiki attack]"

If you mean the en:Wikipedia:Volunteer Fire Department, that page was wiped a while ago and the idea written off. This makes it sound as though it still exists.

"Formal groups within and across WM projects... IRC Administration: IRC channel ops, IRC server-admin contacts (for setting cloaks, &c.)"

IRC admins are anything but a formal group. I don't understand your point about IRC server-admins. Wikimedia doesn't run an IRC server, but this seems to suggest it does.

Angela 07:45, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)