[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

[Brian McNeil]

Many, many people who "stalk" do not do so with any intention of meeting you
in real life. Their aim is to make you leave the project, or in their "wet
dream scenario", have a stress-related mental breakdown and become
irrational.

I know this, but not from trolls on-wiki. I spent weeks in hospital because
I became so paranoid that I thought people were following me everywhere.
What prompted this was dealing with my current partner's divorce case. Her
estranged husband was unable to locate where I was, but was able to make
sure I found out he had managed to obtain a firearm. As rumour and innuendo,
the local police did not take this seriously and I started seeing shadows
everywhere. When I got really irrational, my partner was able to convince me
that the ambulance crew that had arrived were, "the angels come to save me".
I spent six weeks in hospital; I'm lucky I'm in Belgium, for people in the
U.S. an experience like that could be financially crippling.

Most of the people commenting on this issue have not experienced anything
like this, or are significantly more stress-resistant than myself. The same
is most definitely not true for all people. Call us "delicate" if you like,
but do not dismiss this as an inability to deal with trolling. I've fought
my corner on Usenet and issued serious flammage, I'd actually recommend
anyone who wants to learn how to deal with online communication spend some
time using the medium. To be honest, one of my pet peeves with Wikipedia is
there isn't enough "nuke 'em till they glow" with unrepentant trolls and the
like.

So, I'm all for some measures to size up and deal with on-wiki harassment
and stalking. I don't know what is needed, but threats to out, outings, and
indications of the possibility of a physical confrontation are unacceptable.


Brian McNeil

-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Ray Saintonge
Sent: 10 June 2008 20:17
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Stalking Article

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> Hoi,
> There is no Wikicouncil so it is a non-issue. When a wiki council is not
> willing or able to consider the issues as they present themselves, what
good
> would it do ?
>
> It would also hardly be the only thing a wiki council would involve itself
> in. It is exactly when a Wiki council is seen to take on the issues that
> have been neglected in the past that it would build the authority it needs
> to function.
>   
Taking on neglected issues does not mean suicidally jumping into every 
problem that people have previously been unable or unwilling to tackle.  
Building authority does not equate to building a reputation of being 
authoritarian. 

Ec
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 10:12 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote
>> Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
>>     
>>> Would this be a issue for a Wikicouncil or a specialized working group?
>>>       
>> This would require a lot more experience in this kind of thing than is
>> available in a Wikicouncil.  Jumping into the middle of such a difficult
>> and contentious problem would do little to build the Wikicouncil
>> credibility.  In due course I could see it recommending rules to deal
>> with this, but we just aren't there yet.
>>
>> Ec
>>     


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