Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2022-08-01/Election guide

Election Compass: Results of community upvoting (confirmed by the Election Committee)
The final selection of the 15 statements was confirmed by the Election Committee on August 4.


 * .. the "Votes" link are very weird. They're random diffs of random articles. &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 17:21, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, fixed. They were Meta links, of course, and I hadn't added the meta prefix. --Andreas JN 466 17:47, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

Candidate participation
Just fyi for those not following things on meta, it seems like there is a thread on meta at meta:Talk:Wikimedia Foundation elections/2022/Community Voting/Questions for Candidates suggesting that the election committee is discouraging candidates from participating over here. I find that bizarre and sad, as what is the point of an election where the candidates are discouraged from (not allowed to?) talk to the electorate. Bawolff (talk) 02:29, 5 August 2022 (UTC)


 * This note confirms that the Editors-in-Chief are aware of this situation, and that we have been contacted privately as well. Coverage will be added in the September issue. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him &#124; talk) 06:43, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Comment from candidates
Thank you to the Signpost team for writing this article. We are collectively writing here to clarify a few issues.

We were first asked to contribute to this by email on the 25th July, with a deadline of 30 July (in a period where other election activities are ongoing). When we as candidates were discussing this amongst ourselves, there was a consensus from five of us to respond to the Signpost with a request to follow a different procedure: instead of asking us to write new text, we requested that they used existing materials, and followed an equal process for all candidates. The one candidate who did not support this was the one who suggested to the Signpost that they ask us op-eds, without consulting others beforehand. We were hoping for an equal and fair process for all, which respects the existing election process.

We are disappointed that the Signpost did not follow this proposal, instead publishing one op-ed, and not making it clear why the others of us requested that they reuse existing materials. We also did not agree to answer questions as part of this article (although some of us may choose to answer anyway) - instead suggesting an alternative of an online discussion session with all of us. The Election Committee has designed a defined way to ask questions of candidates, which takes into account that we don't have unlimited time to contribute to the election process, and makes the process as inclusive and as equitable as possible, including embedding translations into the process.

We do not ask the Signpost to change things at this point, we simply want to point out these issues with this comment, with the hope that this situation does not arise again in future elections. On behalf of Shani, Farah, Mike, Tobechukwu, Michał. Mike Peel (talk) 08:31, 5 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi Mike Peel, could you clarify why you requested they reuse existing materials? I see your "equal and fair process for all", but your message here does not seem to expand beyond that, aside from noting time committments and translations, which I understand but question as to why that would preclude prospective Board members from communicating with the people they hope to represent outside of Election Committee-designated areas. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 15:19, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
 * We've already put a lot of work into the existing text, particularly those that aren't native speakers. Asking for more text on very short notice (while everything else is also happening) was really not very feasible. We are communicating, but we can't spend all of our time communicating - we have other things (like editing!) we want to get on with as well. :-) Also, see the election committee's comments at meta:Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2022/Community_Voting/Questions_for_Candidates, which also answer your question. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:45, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Video answers posted
The WMF board candidates' video answers to six questions proposed and selected by the community have been posted on Meta-Wiki.

Written answers to additional community questions that were proposed but did not make it into the top six can be found here (further answers may still be added to this page in the days ahead, so do check back). Andreas JN 466 07:54, 21 August 2022 (UTC)