@Gargron

Thanks for boosting this post by @JakeOrlowitz . As I noted when I signed the #WikiWorkersUnited petition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Workers_United_solidarity), my volunteer editing on #Wikipedia is very important to me, but I'm a strong union supporter and I do not cross picket lines.

Wikipedia:Wiki Workers United solidarity - Wikipedia

@funcrunch same! I've been very involved the whole time and told the foundation days ago that there is a very easy way to fix this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(WMF)#c-Clovermoss-20260523195500-Fifteen_thousand_two_hundred_twenty_four-20260523192500
Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF) - Wikipedia

@HannahClover @funcrunch sorry, I don't think there's an "easy" fix to this. This has been going on for over a decade with rotating management and the board escaping accountability. All the things you suggested are reasonable in isolation but only address the symptoms and not the underlying causes. Staff need a union to do that.
@legoktm @funcrunch oh, I completely agree the union is nessecary. I meant "fix this" in the "fix the immediate crisis so things don't completely explode" way
@legoktm @funcrunch alas, things continued to get worse because no one cared to listen. The problems are definitely systemic in nature.
@legoktm @funcrunch and it's not like we're the first people who've tried. Lots of people have spent years of their volunteer effort trying to be a voice in the room to steer people in the right direction. It seems like the board always just does what it wants anyway and then fails to learn from the totally predictable diasterous outcome.
@legoktm @funcrunch like, no one at the foundation has even admitted that firing these people was a massive mistake yet. Days into this situation. That's a failure of epic proportions.
@legoktm @funcrunch instead we get completely out of touch commentary like this:
@HannahClover bear in mind that this is very much not something the Board would be involved in - it's staffing, that's very much delegated (for good reason!) to staff.
@mike_peel wouldn't dissolving a whole team, especially this one, involve the board on some level? The CTO was aware ahead of time so I don't see why the board wouldn't be.
@HannahClover nope, that's operational. There might have been a heads-up.
@HannahClover btw, the place to ask pointed questions about how this affects WMF's plans for the coming year is at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027 ...
Talk:Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2026-2027 - Meta-Wiki