Notice from WMFOffice

[MadManz]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? ... d=18131779

[Kumioko]

Yeah that's a bullshit statement from the WMF that doesn't have any meaning whatsoever. It just amounts to words on paper. Lets break it down a little:

There is currently no universal policy on this for Wikimedia Foundation bans, but where possible we have tried to do so

This is self explanatory, it means they basically just make up the rules as they go along. Worse yet, it means that the WMF can effectively ban anyone they want for any reason, regardless of what the community wants. For an organization to be around for 17 years, the fact that there is no policy is an example of the WMF's incompetence.

I say "where possible" because we have not done so in two instances:

1) where we believed that it would place victims at a higher risk (and we were confident with the level of evidence we were able to obtain on our own), or
2) where the likelihood of recovery was deemed impossible for example, if their actions were so extreme that there was nothing they could say to change the action taken.

Basically these are just hot air from the WMF. Especially in the case of number 2, they all but admit that they don't even bother.

We have, however, reached out to a number of users during our investigations to get their side of the story. Some of those users were ultimately given Foundation Global Bans, but others were given, for example, conduct warnings or had user rights removed. Sometimes no action was taken at all. We have internally been considering a more formal policy of this type of outreach and will be reviewing this as part of the annual plan program for Improving Trust and Safety processes.

Now I can't speak for everyone, but I know in my case they didn't bother to ask any questions about my side of the story and I doubt they did for most of the others who have been banned. Just going down the list, I can't really see to any who they would have contacted.

So basically, the WMF made a statement that has no meaning as usual but at this point no one should really expect James Alexander and company to do anything in a competent fashion.