Board elections/2007/FAQ/en
| 2007 board elections |
|---|
| Organization |
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General
What does it mean by project? Does that just mean edits done on Wikipedia, etc?
- "Project" refers to any official Wikimedia project, as shown on the Complete list of Wikimedia projects. It does not include projects that utilize the MediaWiki software but are not associated with the Wikimedia Foundation, nor does it include proposed projects that have not been approved. There are official projects that do not show up on the complete list of projects; any discrepancies will be ruled on by the Election Officials with assistance from the Foundation's Executive Director. A completely unofficial short-answer would be that if the Stewards can set rights for a project, it's a Wikimedia project, but that is completely unofficial.
Main namespace or all namespaces?
So, in order to vote in the Election, I must have at least 400 edits. Do edits to other namespaces than main also count?
- Definitely yes. There is no restriction of type of namespace. You can include all other namespaces, user namespace, image namespace, template namespace, or talk namespace(s) ... if they are edits on a Wikimedia project.
Move is counted as "edit"?
According to Special:Usercontributions on my active project, I have 400 edits. All are in main namespace but one entry is a result of move. Some Wikipedians say my actual edits in main namespace should be counted 399 edits. Are they right? In other words, can I vote or not?
- Yes, you will be able to vote; the blank edit caused by a page move still counts as an edit. Log entries for moves, however, do not count. The same thing should be said about protection.
Will voting take place on Meta, or will there be opportunities to vote on each of the Wikimedia projects?
- The technical details of voting will be announced very soon. Thank you for your patience.
Can I combine my edits on several projects to reach the required number?
- Unfortunately, no. Due to technical limitations, we cannot fairly allow users to combine edits between different Wikimedia wikis at this time for voting purposes.
On candidacy
Who can run as a candidate for the Board of Trustees?
- You have to meet the candidate criteria, but unlike voters, your first edit must have been made at least one year before June 1st, 2007 to be able to run. You also have to be 18 years or older, and need to get the required number of endorsements from eligible voters until the designated date. See Election notice for further information.
To be a candidate, should I be a member of one of Wikimedia chapters?
- No. It doesn't matter, since any Wikimedia chapter is legally a separate and independent organization from the Wikimedia Foundation.
How many elected positions are being filled?
- We are electing three replacements for current members of the Board of Trustees whose terms end in July 2007.
To what term will the new member(s) be elected ?
- The Wikimedia bylaws say:
- Persons elected by the community shall be appointed for a term of two years.
- Thus elected people will serve for two years, till July 2009.
How can someone nominate themselves?
Will all the current board members be standing for election? Do they have to?
- No, on this occasion, only Erik Möller, Kat Walsh and Oscar van Dillen come to the end of their terms and their successors will be elected. No other members' terms end at this time. For the term of each member, see Wikimedia:Board of Trustees. At the conclusion of their term, each elected Board member will be required to stand for election or rotate off the Board. Also please note the three appointed members, Jimmy Wales, Michael Davis and Jan-Bart de Vreede, won't be elected by vote.
On endorsement
What is the required number of endorsements?
- 12 valid endorsements must be obtained.
How do I endorse a candidate for this election?
- Please see Board elections/2007/Endorsements for details.
I got endorsed on foundation-l. Can I include this to the required endosements for acceptance?
- No. Any endorsement submitted to any other place than the designated place, Board elections/2007/Endorsements, is considered unofficial and not to be counted.
On voters
Who can vote?
- See Election notice for voters' qualification.
I have reached the required number of edits in several projects. Can I vote from each of them ?
- No, you can only vote once. If you fulfill voter qualifications in several projects, you will have to choose from which you want to vote.
Blocked people can vote?
04:35, 27 June 2007 (UTC) addition
I have an account in a Wikimedia project with more than 400 contributions but I am blocked in that project for 1 month. Will I be able to vote even though I still will be blocked during the voting? If the answer is affirmative, what about an infinite block?
- Blocked editors cannot vote. So you won't able to vote in either case. Either temporarily or indefinitely, if you are blocked on the project from which you come to vote at that moment, you cannot cast any ballot. When you are unblocked and the voting is still open, you can vote from the project you are eligible to vote from.
When I go to vote from Wikipedia, the voting interface says it cannot determine me, and I can't vote. How do I vote under my Wikipedia account?
23:07, 1 July 2007 (UTC) addition
- Can you please confirm that you have your browser configured to accept cookies from wikimedia.spi-inc.org? Note that the voting server is not a Wikimedia subdomain.
On votes
Is the ballot secret? Can I know who votes for whom?
- Yes, this is a secret ballot. Only the third party committee that the Election committee appoints to oversee vote counting can know who votes for whom.
On Board members
Is the Board of Trustee a paid position?
- No. Being on the Board of Trustees is a purely voluntary position, and the bylaws prohibit board members from being compensated for serving as board members. However, expenses related to Board activities, such as travel, may be compensated. (For example, a board member who needs to attend a Board meeting in Florida may be reimbursed for airfare and hotel, but may not be paid simply for attending.)
What are Board members expected to do?
- The Board of Trustees decides the general direction of the Wikimedia Foundation, including its strategy, relationships with third parties, and otherwise running, sustaining, and empowering the project. In order to make effective decisions, members are expected to attend approximately four in-person meetings per year, which usually last from one to three days. One of these will often be immediately before or after the annual Wikimania conference. Besides these in-person meetings, the board also has online meetings in IRC as needed.
Miscellanous
I have comments on this Election. Where can I input my ideas?
- For general comments, post on Talk:Elections for the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, 2007/En. If you have a question, ask on Talk:Election FAQ 2007. If you have a comment on a specific page, that page's talk will be most appropriate in most cases.