 | This is aninformation page. It is not anencyclopedic article, nor one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels ofconsensus andvetting. |
.jpg)
Jimmy Wales holds a special role in theEnglish Wikipedia community, due to the central and vital stake he had in its founding. This has in the past included a number of roles in the community's governance, including originally having sole authority toban editors from the site. Wales's various powers were assumed over time by theArbitration Committee and the community. Successively, his direct involvement in the running of the site decreased considerably. His role since May 2023 is essentially as a respected senior community member and representative, a source of institutional knowledge, and the holder of theFounder's seat on the 12-seatWikimedia FoundationBoard of Trustees, the ultimate authority over all Wikimedia projects. He is the sole member of the local and globalfounder user groups in recognition of his status; at his request, neither group confers any advancedrights.[1]
In the past, Wales has instructed Wikimedia'ssystem administrators to implement software changes that constitutede facto Wikipediapolicy changes. For instance, inDecember 2005, in response to theSeigenthaler incident, Wales removed the ability of unregistered users to create new pages on the English-language Wikipedia. This change was proposed as an experiment, but it remains in place.
InFebruary 2006, Wales created the T1criterion for speedy deletion of divisive and inflammatory templates, which wasrepealed in February 2009.
InJanuary 2009, in response to criticism over inaccurate information added to Wikipedia'sTed Kennedy andRobert Byrd articles, Wales wrote an open letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, calling for theflagged revisions software feature to be activated. Wales solicited community input on this issue but did not formally submit the request to the board.
In July 2010, WalesmarkedWikipedia:Child protection as policy, with the edit summary "Do not revert policy tag except on the explicit approval of me and/or the Wikimedia Foundation," seen as an invocation ofWP:CONEXCEPT.
Wales maintains avery activetalk page,more watched than the village pumps, which he uses as a noticeboard to publish his occasional "decrees" or announcements and where he facilitates discussion on all sorts of Wikimedia projects matters that he welcomes (from the broadest to the most specific; relating to Wikipedias in all languages, Wikimedia, Commons etc.); the latter often includeappropriate notification of current or future discussions on the English Wikipedia or elsewhere to solicit more participation from the talk page's followers.
On 6 February 2006, Jimmy Waleswas granted the 'steward' right on English Wikipedia byDanny, andwas granted the 'steward' right on Meta bySj. In 2009, a 'founder' flag was established for Wales,[2] replacing his steward rights.[3]
Thefounder user group, to whichonly Jimmy Wales belongs, gives him a specific set of user rights on all projectsincluding: abuse filter viewing, viewing deleted pages in the File and File talk namespace, and creating accounts. The rights associated with this flag were once much more extensive, including all administrative rights and user right editing, but weredramatically reduced in May 2010 following an incident wherehe deleted files at Wikimedia Commons without seeking consensus. In April 2023, these global permissions were again reduced at Jimmy Wales's request.[4] Jimmy Wales also agreed to the removal of his English Wikipedia administrator, CheckUser and Oversight permissions; and to modify the local Founder permission so that it was no longer able to grant permissions to himself or other users.[5]
In June 2003, theWikimedia Foundation (WMF) was founded as "Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of Florida, United States."[6] The foundation's governance is aboard of trustees, that in 2003 initially comprised of Jimmy Wales asChair,Michael Davis (Mdavis), andTim Shell (TimShell). Wales kept the position as Chair until October 2006, when it was changed to the role as "ChairmanEmeritus".
Since 2008, Jimmy Wales is (additionally to theChairman Emeritus) granted the "Founder's seat" on theWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the ultimate corporate authority of the Wikimedia Foundation.[7][8] Although Wales founded Wikipedia together withLarry Sanger, there is only one Founder's seat on the board.[9] The creation of the founder seat position came among controversies over the appropriate representation of volunteers and chapters within the WMF governance.[10][11]
The members of theArbitration Committee were originally appointed by Wales, and he at one time asserted the right to overrule or even dissolve the Committee. When it was founded in 2004, he said that he expected to exercise this right"basically never". InJune 2008, Wales once again asserted the power to overrule the Committee if he deemed it necessary, but added that he did not expect that would ever come about. This was in apparent contradiction to a previous statement by Wales made inApril 2007:
Here, let me by decree in this very instant make the following binding pledge upon myself:
In the event that the ArbCom makes a ruling against me, overturning any decision I have made in my traditional capacity within Wikipedia, the ArbCom's decision shall be final.
InJanuary 2009, Wales stated that he did have the authority to remove sitting arbitratorFT2. Upon the arbitrator's resignation, the Committeedeclared that whether or not FT2 was to be replaced was a decision for Wales. That same month, the Committeerestricted its official mailing list to "sitting arbitrators, the designated mailing list coordinator, and Jimbo Wales"; the position of designated mailing list coordinator was subsequently discarded, making Wales the only non-arbitrator privy to the list.
In July 2009, the Committeeannounced that it had convened with Wales's endorsement anAdvisory Council on Project Development. Astorm of protest from the editing community over the initiative led to its abandonment and the resignation of the arbitrator primarily responsible.
In August 2009, the Committeefound Wales to be in breach of theblocking policy in his block ofBishonen, and acknowledged his "permanent abdication of the use of the blocking tool".
InSeptember 2009, Wales declared that he wanted his role to appoint Committee members following theDecember 2009 elections to be "purely ceremonial".
The English Wikipedia community ratified a rewrittenArbitration policy in June 2011. Inthis policy, the only role Jimmy Wales held in relation to the Arbitration Committee was to act as an appeal body. He was able to hear appeals of remedies, and amend remedies.
Wales continued to assert implied reserve powers over the Arbitration Committee, including the hypothetical power to disband it. In December 2013, arbitrator-elect28bytes resigned amidst a controversy over his status as aWikipediocracy admin. Citing 28bytes's overwhelming support in the just-concluded election, Walesoffered to exercise his reserve powers over ArbCom for the first time ever and call a special election to reconfirm 28bytes to his post. 28bytes, however,declined the offer, and no election was held. As a result, no determination was made as to whether Wales had the power to call a special election.
In December 2017, upon the conclusion of the2017 Arbitration Committee Election, Walesconfirmed that he no longer needed to appoint members of the Arbitration Committee and that the established community process is sufficient for their election. Appeals from committee decisions to Wales ended in May 2023, followinga community-initiated referendum amending arbitration policy to remove a reference to such appeals. Waleshad said prior to the referendum that he viewed his reserve powers as tied to his appellate role, and he did not argue during or after the referendum that these powers would survive a loss of that role.
The original members of theMediation Committee wereappointed by Wales in December 2003, at the same time as the original Arbitrators were selected. All new mediator nominations were subject to the final approval of Wales, although he rarely commented on nominations and has never overturned a consensus of the Committee. Jimbo held a subscription to the private mailing list of the Mediation Committee,Mediation-en-l. The Mediation Committee wasdisbanded by the community in 2018.
Historically,Wikipedia:Banning policy § Authority to ban included a line that stated:Jimbo Wales retains the authority to ban editors.
In April 2022, Jimbo Walesremoved this line from the policy at his own volition,stating in a village pump discussion regarding that line:In order to prevent any further controversy on the immediate question, though, I have personally removed the line in question from the policy and assert affirmatively that I do not have the right to ban users unilaterally.
When he was an administrator on the English Wikipedia, Wales had the technical ability toblock editors. However, in August 2009 he decided topermanently renounce these powers. In May 2010, heused them again.
On 21 September 2011, heunblocked an IP "Limited unblock for purpose of participating on my talk page only".
Until April 2023, Wales had the technical ability, through the unique permissions flag of "founder", to add and remove alluser rights. Wales has not invoked this power often, and his most recent for-cause removals of admin rights, in 2008, provoked varying amounts of controversy.[12] The question of whether the English Wikipedia community could revoke advanced permissions from User:Jimbo Wales arose during a Request for Arbitration in April 2023; Wales voluntarily arranged to have his advanced permissions removed by WMF staff, and to have both the Global Founder and English Wikipedia Founder group permissions limited.[13]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)