View source for Bassel Khartabil/Banner/Straw poll/ca

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the straw poll. Please note that from this point on, no further votes will be accepted, as the poll will now be evaluated by an uninvolved third party. Thank you! [[user:odder|odder]] ([[user talk:odder|talk]]) 20:06, 28 November 2015 (UTC)
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Closed: '''Not done'''. A 63% support margin is very slim, unlike the previous 87% support for the SOPA blackout (the only previous case like this that I can refer to for precedent). As such, I have evaluated the strength of the supporting and opposing arguments, and generally find the opposing side to be more compelling. Specifically here is the notion that not all of the facts of this case are known beyond a doubt, and there is also limited demonstrable efficacy in the proposed banner campaign. I am also not convinced that four days of discussion is enough to set a precedent on this kind of action; while I understand the time constraint, this sort of thing should have at least a couple weeks of discussion and wide participation.

I would like to make it clear that this result is based on procedural concerns and balancing the arguments; I personally fully support efforts to free the individual in question. However, I do not believe that there is enough consensus here to use Wikimedia as a platform for accomplishing that goal. Individual projects may use sitenotices as decided locally, and I would highly recommend a change.org or similar petition campaign, which might have more of an impact than a banner on our projects. Apologies for the late closure on this, and feel free to raise concerns on the talk page. [[User:Ajraddatz|Ajraddatz]]<small> ([[User Talk:Ajraddatz|talk]])</small> 09:05, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
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'''This straw poll in a nutshell:'''
* We vote whether to start a banner campaign asking Wikipedia readers to take action regarding the urgent situation of [[:en:Bassel Khartabil|Bassel Khartabil]];
* All Wikimedia contributors are welcome to participate;
* You can either support or oppose running the banner campaign;
* The straw poll runs until 20:00 UTC on Saturday 28 November 2015;
* If the community decides to move forward with the campaign, it will start at 14:00 UTC on Sunday 29 November, to end at 14:00 on Sunday 6 December.
Thank you for participating!
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In November 2015, it has been reported that [[:w:Bassel Khartabil|Bassel Khartabil]], a Palestinian/Syrian Wikipedia volunteer, open source software developer, and Creative Commons activist, may have been sentenced to death by a secret military tribunal, after spending over two and a half years in detention without any charge or trial. During that time, Bassel has suffered torture and other mistreatment, including an 8-month period of solitary confinement.

In response to these reports, several Wikimedia volunteers created a proposed CentralNotice banner campaign to ask the readers of Wikipedia to call on the Syrian government to reveal Bassel's whereabouts and release him from prison; see [[Special:MyLanguage/Free Bassel|Free Bassel]] and [[Special:MyLanguage/Bassel Khartabil/Banner|Free Bassel/Banner]] for details.

This poll seeks to assess whether the global Wikimedia community finds itself '''in favour''' or '''against'''  Wikipedia running a CentralNotice banner raising awareness of Bassel's situation and asking its readers to take action. The campaign has tentatively been set to last 7 days (168 hours), starting at 14:00 UTC on Sunday 29 November 2015 (09:00 Eastern/06:00 Pacific), and ending at 14:00 UTC on 6 December. As a CentralNotice, it would appear at the top of every page on every Wikimedia project, until a user dismisses it.<!-- Please correct this last sentence if inaccurate. We should be explicit about this. -Pete -->

This poll is '''set to end at 20:00 UTC on 28 November 2015'''. Should the community decide to move forward with the banner campaign, this should give the ad-hoc organisers enough time to set it up; please see [[#technicaldetails|below]] for details.

Given Bassel's urgent situation and the resulting tight schedule, we ask everyone to get involved with the poll and the discussion to the widest possible extent, and to promote it among their communities as soon as possible. We understand that a campaign like this would be unprecedented in Wikipedia's history, which is why we're seeking the widest possible consensus among the community.

'''Instructions:''' To show your support for either of the proposed options below, add the following line of code at the bottom of the list of other supporters you wish to join: 	 

<big><code><nowiki>#'''Support'''. ~~~~</nowiki></code></big>
Thank you!

{{anchor|technicaldetails}}
=== Technical details ===

The preliminary plan for the campaign is to use [[Special:MyLanguage/CentralNotice|CentralNotice]] banners showing on top of every page on all language versions of Wikipedia, to all users, in the language of their browser/operating system or defaulting to English if not available. The campaign will be using [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Random&banner=freebassel_2015&uselang=en&force=1 this banner], with translations provided by volunteer Wikimedia translators.

== In favour of the banner campaign ==
: {{Clickable button 2|1=Add your name|url=//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_Bassel/Banner/Straw_poll/In_favour&action=edit|class=mw-ui-constructive}}
{{:Bassel Khartabil/Banner/Straw poll/In favour}}

== Against the banner campaign ==
: {{Clickable button 2|1=Add your name|url=//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_Bassel/Banner/Straw_poll/Against&action=edit|class=mw-ui-constructive}}
{{:Bassel Khartabil/Banner/Straw poll/Against}}

== Discussion ==
: {{Clickable button 2|1=Discuss|url=//meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_Bassel/Banner/Straw_poll/Discussion&action=edit|class=mw-ui-constructive}}
{{:Bassel Khartabil/Banner/Straw poll/Discussion}}

[[Category:Advocacy{{#translation:}}]]
[[Category:Requests for comments in 2015{{#translation:}}]]
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