I previously described my experience of being a member of Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Labs website http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/2014-June/004388.html

I think part of my shock was based on being British, and how the sink-or-swim attitude prevailed by those running and moderating. At least at Wikipedia there is some notion of "We have a problem here, let's discuss how best to fix it." The name of one forum at TS was "Free for all - enter at your own risk" followed by a note that more members had been suspended from that message board than from any of the others, and this is all they have in the way of rules http://labs.triggerstreet.com/labs/Help?faqCat=Message%20Board

Having said that, the one thing that I thought worked well was their Hall of Justice. Members earn credits for their reviews (which are randomly assigned by the 'assignment generator') they then spend them on the website. An obvious way of earning a lot of credits is to make up a load of generic comments like, "the characters in this screenplay are very interesting", request another assignment, copy and paste, earn credit, and repeat.

The HOJ exists for members who think the review that they received was unfair. There is a criteria for the reviews including: not cutting and pasting from other reviews, (if you think it has happened then you include the ref. no. from the other review as evidence), reviews should be constructive and non-abusive, a decent word length (I think the minimum was 100 words), there should also be evidence in the review which shows that the reviewer definitely read / watched the submission.

If a member thinks they have been unfairly treated then they send a review to the HOJ. Other members - let's call them arbitrators - with a high enough participation level (like having 'enough' edits in your edit history) can request a - randomly generated - docket, read the review, read the details of the complaint e.g. ("I think this review is a cut & past of ref. # 'x' ...."). The arbitrator who received the docket for review then has a choice of Y/N check-boxes relating to the review critieria and a comment form, for anything else that they might like to add.

The same docket goes to a number of different arbitrators in the same way. (Note: there is a limit to how many dockets a member can request in 24 hrs.) If the majority think it should go further, it is passed on to the jury.

Details about the jury from the website:
> "The jury is a group of your peers made up of seasoned members picked by site staff. Although we cannot say what the criteria is used to pick the jury, logic dictates that they are active, positive, and objective members of the community. They are asked not to reveal themselves or discuss their status with anyone so they can vote without retribution."

(FAQs about the HOJ: http://labs.triggerstreet.com/labs/Help?faqCat=Hall%20of%20Justice )

A Wikipedia variation on it might include:
* editors would need a certain number of edits before they are eligible to become an arbitrator
* there would be a time-limit from the end of being blocked before being eligible for 'arbitration duty'
* administrators / senior figures would be ineligible to be arbitrators
* 'cases' for arbitrators to consider would be assigned randomly by computer
* it would be prohibited for an arbitrator to tell those involved in the case that they have been allocated it
* 50% of those asked to consider a case would have to be female (other quotas might be relevant for other demographics)
* there would be a limit to how many cases an arbitrator could ask for in a certain time period (I actually envisage it being more like a cross between jury service and those user talk page notices that there is a discussion taking place somewhere

These might be more technically difficult:
* cases would only go to arbitrators whose edit history is generally in a different subject area - so someone complaining about a dispute about a particular scientific point would have their complaint go to an arbitrator whose edit history is in, say, historical BLPs
* a limit to the number of times you could go through the arbitration process with the same case

Cases would only go forward for administrators to get involved with if enough arbitrators agreed that it merited being put forward.


> On a slightly different note:
Everyone seems to be mentioning the different ways in which the rules are applied to male vs. female editors. Is it possible to run a query or get hold of statistics for the average length of time female editors get blocked for, versus how long male editors are blocked for? Perhaps a table that takes account of the editors' participation levels prior to the block?

Marie

> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2014 21:23:18 -0400
> From: carolmooredc@verizon.net
> To: gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Addressing incivility (was: men on lists)

>
> When I was a little girl in the 1950s and 60s we were told to be passive
> and pray for what we wanted. Thank heavens self-actualization and womens
> liberation came along and we discovered "well-behaved women seldom make
> history." (Nicely covered at
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Thatcher_Ulrich )
>
> If we want the guys to change we gotta keep busting their chops about
> being civil, within the limits of civility of course. On a one on one
> basis, day after day after day. And even though no matter how civil we
> are, SOME of them still will think it is we who are being uncivil.
>
> It's a dirty job, but it's gotta be done.
>
> And the more guys who help promote civility and are willing to counter
> the good-old-boy mentality, the better... :-)
>
> On 7/3/2014 3:18 PM, Sydney Poore wrote:
> > There was an attempt to address the civility problem on Wikipedia
> > English with a top down approach at the very start of Sue Gardner's
> > time at WMF. Sue, Jimmy Wales, myself, and a group of half dozen other
> > people talked about it in a closed group. It failed because a top down
> > approach is not effective on Wikipedia because policies can not be
> > enforced from the top. Policies need to be made that a large part of
> > the community agrees at proper and enforceable.
> >
> > I would be willing to assist a group that wants to take another run at
> > it. But there are significant challenges with enforcing a civility
> > policy on a global community where cultural norms differ at great
> > deal. So, we need to be careful that an attempt to assist one group of
> > users does not make it harder for other groups of people who are also
> > under represented on Wikipedia English.
> >
>
>
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