Talk:Wikimedia Foundation elections/2021/Apply to be a Candidate

Semi-protected edit request on 17 June 2021

Add this question to the list of questions to ask candidates: The Wikimedia Foundation has recently asked users in poorer countries and those struck badly by the Coronavirus pandemic for donations. They have been criticised for continuing to ask for donations despite having vast amounts of funds in excess of what is needed to run the project https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ . What will you do with Wikimedias large surplus of funds to warrant the continuing requests for donations and even opening of new revenue streams. Gsykesvoyage (talk) 10:08, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

@Mardetanha and JKoerner (WMF):, the steward that protected this page and the "Facilitation for English language and Meta-Wiki" contact. Please review this request. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:46, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

@Mardetanha: please review as you protected as a steward. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:52, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

Not done not sure why the resources above have ignored their pings, but if you want to follow up on this please post at Stewards' noticeboard to get an uninvolved steward to review. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:33, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Questions translation on this page

@Mehman (WMF) should we really mark these questions for translation now? since they may be in any language now and will be collated later, I find it redundant. Ата ^(talk) 20:04, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Hello Ата. Thanks for your feedback. We will mark them for translation now, as we want everyone to be able to familiarize themselves with them and this will also allow us (and everyone) to avoid duplicate questions (in any language). But, you can refrain from translating now and start translating them when this (submitting) period ends. The main thing for us is that the technical things would be translated, what has already been done by you and we are very grateful to you. Kindly, --Mehman (WMF) (talk) 21:18, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 June 2021

I want to be a candidate. What I do now?118.179.57.1 21:36, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections clearly states you need a user account with a good record of contributions. ~~~~
User:1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 23:01, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

Queries

A couple of queries: one is a paragraphs says Please do not link to another page containing an extended answer - should that be "extended question"?

Another is that the system asks "contact the candidates on their talk pages or via email". I specifically want Trustees who rapidly respond to direct queries from editors, it's one of the three most important factors to me - this actually seems to make that harder to identify.

Thirdly, given the early question locking, and statement above, is there an intended system to handle follow-up queries in the event of incomplete, non-answer, or unclear answers to questions? Nosebagbear (talk) 23:38, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

Hi Nosebagbear, Thanks for your questions. I think it is supposed to be extended answer. This is asking candidates to answer questions on the question page and not link to other locations. This keeps all the answers centralized in the same space.

Regarding "We ask that people respect the time of all involved and please do not use the question pages to link to other pages with more questions, or contact the candidates on their talk pages or via email." This is to respect the time of all involved. Campaigning is a demanding process and community members should easily be able to read information about candidates.

The suggestion for engaging with candidates about incomplete answers or answers needing follow-up is to post on that question's talk page. I hope this clarifies things. Let me know if you need more clarification. Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 21:15, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Questions

Hello, after the page of the accepted candidates is published I have now maybe questions to the candidates I havent thinked about before and got these qestion by reading their thougts and havent found that questions on the site with the collection of the questions. Why should I not ask the candidates questions directly that are not yet collected and in the list with the questions all candidates answer. From my point of view direct questions to candidates without a selection through a third party are a important part of a election. What I ask someone or not should be my own decision. Otherwise I can understand that these needs more time for the candidates and there is also a language barrier. At other elections on wiki in Wikidata and Wikipedia that I have seen, it was possible to ask the canditates questions. --Hogü-456 (talk) 20:27, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi Hogü-456, thanks for your feedback about this. The facilitation team supporting the Board elections looked at historical practices done for Board elections and tried to follow those closely. Do you propose something different for the campaign period and period to submit questions? Please let me know if you have suggestions and I can include those in the Post-Analysis report the facilitation team will be preparing after the election. Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 21:19, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Hello JKoerner (WMF), I mean the following part of the page. Wikimedia Foundation elections/2021/Apply to be a Candidate#Community Questions for Candidates. I think that there are qeustions collected that all people can answer is good and what I wish is that there is as a additional thing the possibility to aks people directly specific own questions. Diversity is a good thing and important for the board from my point of view and this means that are additional to the general questiosn specific questions I want to aks people and do that without being out of that what is wished. I suggest to create for every person who is a candidate a page where there can be then discussions about specific topics. In the German Wikipedia and in other language versions this is done for elections and works well. --Hogü-456 (talk) 21:38, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi, Hogü-456! Thanks for sharing about this. I'll certainly add that into the suggestions for next year. I'll ask a colleague on my team about it. He is a German Wikimedian so I am sure he knows about this. Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 00:40, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Relevance of questions and the role of the Board

There are many questions that are important that will not be considered by the board. Technical issues like the functioning in Android or iPhone are operational and are dealt at that level. So my answer to such questions will be "this is imho not something that will be considered by the board". My agenda is more abstract: our priority needs to be much more towards serving our public providing for our public. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 10:47, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

@GerardM: Part of my consideration for a good Trustee is also knowing what their views are on certain performance aspects by the WMF. A number of the style of question you note refer to current issues rather than potential future ones, and as such, are not merely a pure "how would you do this" but also seek to provide insight into your assessment of the current WMF status quo. As such, just avoiding the answer would not usually be appropriate. Nosebagbear (talk) 11:04, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

There is 15 years worth of blog posts in my blog. We would do much better when we consider more "user stories" and when we consider the science done on our projects. To be blunt, do we accept that we are biased when 15 years of sociological research says so? When we don't what does this mean for our use of references?

When I state that something is not the domain of the board, it is not that I have no opinion. It is that I indicate that you get some understanding of what I realistically can do. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 11:43, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Board members are the ones who will decide how much money to allocate to addressing technical issues like the functioning in Android or iPhone. So, it will be considered by the board, every year, when you do the budget. In fact, the technical problems are caused by not enough resources being allocated to the right places, so the Board has direct influence over whether technical issues will or will not be remedied. The Trustees will also be selecting the next CEO, who will hire, fire, and supervise the other executives and (indirectly) everyone else, including the people in charge of technical issues. It's important that the Trustees hire someone who will be an effective leader for the people working on the technical issues (and everyone else). Bottom line, fixing technical issues is a core part of serving our public and providing for our public. It's very important to me that Trustees know this and have a good plan for addressing it. Levivich (talk) 17:10, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

At most does the board ask about a technical situation. When there is a need, a proposal will be prepared by the org. You overestimate what the board can do. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 08:49, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

It's not true that at most what the Board can do is ask about a technical situation. The Board can approve a different budget than the one requested by the CEO. The Board can require that certain money be spent on certain purposes, and forbid money from being spent on other purposes. The Board can replace the CEO and other officers, for example, if the officers are missing deadlines set by the Board, or are unable to effectively hire or lead their teams. The Board can amend the Bylaws to require or prohibit the organization from engaging in certain activities. The Board doesn't need to wait for a proposal from the org, it can make its own proposals and resolutions. Even to your goals of "serving our public" and "providing for our public," there's the question of whether the technology (such as the mobile app, MediaWiki, Visual Editor, Discussion Tools, etc. etc.) fulfills those goals (they don't), and if not, what can be done about it (hint: it requires the allocation of money and the hiring of executives). There's a lot the Board can do. I feel you underestimate what the Board can do. It's a Board of Trustees, not a Board of Advisors. The powers of the Board are real, and the duty of supervision is also real. Levivich (talk) 13:40, 29 July 2021 (UTC)