User:BilledMammal/2023 Wikimedia RfC

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

RfC to issue a non-binding resolution to the Wikimedia Foundation

Should the English Wikipedia issue the following non-binding resolutions to the Wikimedia Foundation?

Each of the resolutions has its own section for !votes and discussion:

Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia
Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects
Increased support for internal needs

02:42, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

Proposed resolutions

Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia

The English Wikipedia community is concerned about the distribution of grants related to activity on the English Wikipedia that will either not contribute to our goals of building an encyclopedia or will actively hinder those goals. We request that the Wikimedia Foundation informs the English Wikipedia of all non-trivial grants that will result in activity on the English Wikipedia through the opening of a discussion at the Village Pump (WMF) prior to the grant being issued. We also request that the Foundation considers comments made in the discussion and does not proceed with the grant if the English Wikipedia is not convinced of its utility.
We hope this will prevent recurrences of grants such as the $20,000 grant to improve coverage of Deforestation in Nigeria, which has been a net negative to the project and was based on incorrect information – that there was no information on the topic of deforestation in Nigeria, despite the existence of the article Deforestation in Nigeria.

Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects

The English Wikipedia community is concerned that the Wikimedia Foundation has found itself engaged in mission creep, and that this has resulted in funds that donors provided in the belief that they would support Wikimedia Projects being allocated to unrelated external organizations, despite urgent need for those funds to address internal deficiencies.
We request that the Wikimedia Foundation reappropriates all money remaining the Knowledge Equity Fund, and we request that prior to making non-trivial grants that a reasonable individual could consider unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects that the Foundation seeks approval from the community.

Increased support for internal needs

The English Wikipedia community is concerned that the Wikimedia Foundation has neglected critical areas of the project, and that continued neglect of these areas may endanger the project.
To improve the resilience of the project, we request that money be reallocated to hiring more technical staff, whose role will be to fulfill requests from the community such as those expressed on the Community Wishlist, as well as restoring access to tools such as grapher extension.
To improve knowledge equity we also request that that the Foundation provides funding to assist established editors in accessing the resources they need to improve the encyclopedia, such as by increasing the number of libraries accessible through the Wikipedia Library and by giving micro-grants for the purchase of backlogged items at Resource Request.

Related discussions

There are three related discussions that editors involved in this may be interested in; they are listed here.

Community Response

Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia (Community Response)

The English Wikipedia community is concerned about the distribution of grants related to activity on the English Wikipedia that will either not contribute to our goals of building an encyclopedia or will actively hinder those goals. We request that the Wikimedia Foundation informs the English Wikipedia of all non-trivial grants that will result in activity on the English Wikipedia through the opening of a discussion at the Village Pump (WMF) prior to the grant being issued. We also request that the Foundation considers comments made in the discussion and does not proceed with the grant if the English Wikipedia is not convinced of its utility.
We hope this will prevent recurrences of grants such as the $20,000 grant to improve coverage of Deforestation in Nigeria, which has been a net negative to the project and was based on incorrect information – that there was no information on the topic of deforestation in Nigeria, despite the existence of the article Deforestation in Nigeria.

Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia (Survey)

Support (Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia)

Oppose (Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia)

Grants to organizations intending to be active on the English Wikipedia (Discussion)

Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects (Community Response)

The English Wikipedia community is concerned that the Wikimedia Foundation has found itself engaged in mission creep, and that this has resulted in funds that donors provided in the belief that they would support Wikimedia Projects being allocated to unrelated external organizations, despite urgent need for those funds to address internal deficiencies.
We request that the Wikimedia Foundation reappropriates all money remaining the Knowledge Equity Fund, and we request that prior to making non-trivial grants that a reasonable individual could consider unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects that the Foundation seeks approval from the community.

Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects (Survey)

Support (Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects)

Oppose (Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects)

Grants to organizations unrelated to supporting Wikimedia Projects (Discussion)

Increased support for internal needs (Community Response)

The English Wikipedia community is concerned that the Wikimedia Foundation has neglected critical areas of the project, and that continued neglect of these areas may endanger the project.
To improve the resilience of the project, we request that money be reallocated to hiring more technical staff, whose role will be to fulfill requests from the community such as those expressed on the Community Wishlist, as well as restoring access to tools such as grapher extension.
To improve knowledge equity we also request that that the Foundation provides funding to assist established editors in accessing the resources they need to improve the encyclopedia, such as by increasing the number of libraries accessible through the Wikipedia Library and by giving micro-grants for the purchase of backlogged items at Resource Request.

Increased support for internal needs (Survey)

Support (Increased support for internal needs)

Oppose (Increased support for internal needs)

Increased support for internal needs (Discussion)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.