May 2012 (UTC)

Rob Schnautz (WMF), what I meant by bringing up the Okeyes (WMF) example was that he was hired to complete a specific task, i.e. to get the community involved in the development of the New Page Triage (WP:NPT) and the Article Feedback Tool/Version 5. So his task was clear to us. Since he is the point man, the go-to guy. It's very easy to get information from him. He has the two "tool" talk pages, his newsletters and holds "office hours on IRC chat. And email, plus he responds readily and to the point on his talk page. There's no confusion. Everyone knows what's going on. If he can't give a direct answer, he might say something like "I have no control over that; I'll ask the developers if your proposal is possible and get back to you." He is really clear about what he can do and what is out of his hands (up to the developers or WMF or technically not feasible etc.). 
I appreciate that you and Ldavis (WMF) are community liaison people, but I only learned about you recently and I'm not sure what sorts of things you cover or what it would be appropriate to contact  you or Ldavis (WMF) about. I found out accidentally about Dennis (WMF) – or what ever his name is – because I got involved with copyvio issues and I knew Moonriddengirl handled that kind of stuff, etc. That's the first I learned of {WMF) editors around.
My big beef (which I've gotten over) was a problem with an Online Ambassador. And I kept being told, every time I asked that "it was being handled" by the Steering Committee. There was zero transparency, and I even had a post removed and got very bad vibs for asking questions from some of editors (I don't know what, if any,  positions they held in  the Education Program). So I am very surprised (and relieved) to read above: "The Steering Committee in its most recent form wasn't responsible for overseeing anything except the online ambassador management and recruitment; as a result, the current status of online ambassador recruitment and management is largely unknown."  
So I welcome Pine's transparency and your acknowledgment (from my point of view) of reality, and I hope that this all works out. I know that some editors keep lists of course articles in their sandbox with the goal of fixing them all up. So there still is a reservoir of good will among some community editors to protect wikipedia from these "students". 
I'm posting here with the best of intentions and not to harm anyone. Best wishes,    23:50, 2