From time to time, the Wikipedia community will write open letters on matters pertinent to Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. These open letters usually function as a coordinated response from the community to the issues at hand. In the past, these letters have been written by the English Wikipedia community, or the entire community. In the past, these letters have been addressed to the Wikimedia Foundation, or to government institutions.
In August 2014, Wikimedia Foundation introduced the 'superprotect' user right for its staff which would supercede local administrator's user rights. The Wikimedia community responded with an open letter urging the removal of the newly created user right along with allowing projects to opt-in on the usage Wikipedia:Media Viewer by consensus.
Outcomes:
The superprotect userrights was removed by November 2015.
Media Viewer was further improved after a series of consultations with the foundation.
We ask the Wikimedia Foundation to pause or stop its current movement renaming activities, due to persistent shortcomings in the current rebranding process. Future work should be restarted only in a way that ensures equitable decision-making.
This is a call from 444 volunteer editors and administrators of the English Wikipedia asking the Wikimedia Foundation's CEO, senior staff, and the Board of Trustees, to address attention to urgently required software bugs and requests for the needs for the New Page Review system.
Outcome:
The foundation took on the work to develop the relevant software.
In light of an ongoing legal case in India, we call upon the Foundation to prioritize the safety and well being of volunteers, even if it comes with a risk of legal action against the Foundation, or other costs. Any other action risks having a chilling effect on the work of volunteers across the project, and only makes it more likely that such pressure will be exerted in future.
^For stability purposes, the number of signatures to ongoing letters should be updated with the totals based on the last edit of the previous day by the UTC timezone.
^ Wikimedia affiliates, i.e. chapters, user groups, thematic groups, may or may not be recognised by the Foundation through the Affiliations Committee
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.
