Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Board elections
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I sent an e-mail to the editor about this story, and didn't receive a response. I'm posting this here, because I think it's an important overlooked fact in this story:
In the story this week about Gregory Maxwell sending out a "don't forget to vote in the board elections" e-mail, do you consider it at all pertinent that one of the board member candidates, incumbent Kat Walsh, is his significant other? (As per Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Mindspillage and many other places...)
These are the kinds of conflicts of interest that journalists need to take in to account and report about - not in a scuzzy, scandalous way, but in a serious, explaining motivations behind behaviors way. All it takes is one sentence - non-judgemental, simply factual - "Maxwell is the long-time partner of Wikimedia board member and candidate for re-election Kat Walsh." - and you've given readers a crucial piece of information. They may decide Maxwell and Walsh's relationship has nothing to do with the e-mail; they may decide that Maxwell knew Walsh was more likely to garner support from en.wiki (where she "comes from," in the Wikiworld). Who knows? But readers at least would have the information they need to make their own judgements about whether such an e-mail was improper.
