[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

[Dan Rosenthal]

On 6/10/08, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> --- On Tue, 6/10/08, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > From: Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Stalking Article
> > To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> > Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 4:07 AM
> > Ray,
> > We are talking about people who on or off list threaten
> > others to kill, maim
> > and rape. We are talking about people associated with
> > aggressive pov pushing
> > and using any means whatsoever to establish their pov.
> > There have been
> > several examples given of this behaviour by credible
> > people. Suggesting as
> > you do that there is no idea that we are talking about it
> > not where we are
> > at.
>
> I am a bit lost as to what this whole thread is about. Many people seem to
> be speaking with a great deal of allusion where I am not familar enough with
> the backgroun to dechiper it. So can someone clearly tell me if there are
> any current admins or crats on any wiki that are known to have "on or off
> list threaten others to kill, maim and rape"?
>
> Birgitte SB
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I think you have it backwards. I think she meant that there are admins, and
crats, who HAVE BEEN threatened (not doing the threatening) with murder,
rape etc. I'm one such example, I've had a stalker through Wikipedia who has
very graphically threatened to kill me, has sent mail to an old address of
mine describing in detail how he intends to torture me while raping and
killing my family. On the one hand, I'm not concerned about it personally --
I feel safe, I am able to protect myself, and harassment is a known risk of
making my identity public as I have chosen to do. On the other hand, I'm
concerned for others who may find themselves in a similar situation, who did
not choose to make their identities public but were instead outed
by malicious people and websites,  who don't have that same level of
protection, or perhaps are physically or emotionally frail and not in a
position to be confident in their safety. That's a big concern, and I don't
think it's something that can be ignored much long (nor should it),
especially with as many longtime contributors that have been effected by it.
We're getting to the point where if you are a contributor to the English
Wikipedia (and in some cases other projects and languages), and you are a
visible administrator or bureaucrat, and have been around for a decent
amount of time, chances are high you will have been the subject of an
attempted outing attempt or harassment.That's very very bad, and we need to
start thinking of ways that we can mitigate that risk. It's certainly
something that weighs heavily on my mind, and makes me wish that I was more
intelligent that I could snap my fingers and have a solution ready.

-- 
Dan Rosenthal