[Foundation-l] Stalking, an attempt to clarify.

[John Barberio]

This is an attempt to separate and clarify the subject of Stalking as  
applied to Wikipedia.

1) The term "Wikistalking", which has generally referred to following  
someone's contributions on wikipedia and then making petty edits or  
reverts. This is, I think, a poor choice of word, it's not 'Stalking'  
in the threatening sense, and really just an additional avenue of  
common place harassment. Rolling so called 'wikistalking' up as a  
'subset of stalking' is not useful, and may in-fact be damaging  
towards attempts to confront threatening stalking. Perhaps it should  
be renamed "Contribution harassment", as it's a pattern of harassment  
following someone's contributions. There have been recent issues of  
accusations of "Stalking" being misused as an attack in it's self, by  
labelling honest attempts to improve articles or review a user's  
behaviour as attempts to 'stalk'.

2) It should be important to note, that under US law, notable editors  
of Wikipedia may become "limited purpose public figures". This does  
mean that, for example, "outing" a notable editor's identity, is not  
something they can take action against. The outside world would not,  
therefore, consider it 'stalking' behaviour. The existence of  
'Harassment Sites'  is not something that Wikimedia can realistically  
do anything about. Attempts to enforce restrictions on linking to, and  
restrictions on editors found to be involved with such sites was  
discussed in depth on en.wikipedia, and proposals to enforce these  
failed. There is likely still a large issue in the need to offer  
anonymity, the need to provide accountability, and the need to prevent  
conflicts of interest. However, these issues should not be combined  
with 'Stalking'.

3) Threats of harm, ranging from threats of 'beating you up' to 'rape  
you and kill you' should and must be handled by the police. It's  
beyond the scope of Wikimedia's abilities to do anything about these  
threats beyond blocking editors. Problems with getting your local  
police force to do something, is also sadly beyond Wikimedia's  
abilities. If your local police office refuses to take action on  
threats of assault, make a complaint and write to your government  
authority.

Generally, the best and most Wikimedia can do are...
	* Limit "contribution harassment" on it's projects.
	* Enforce policies on civility and threats.
	* Refer threats of violence to the authorities.
	* Co-operate with the authorities in investigations into harassment  
and stalking.
	* Provide professional advice and guidance to victims of stalking.

I think that some of the actions that have been taken in the name of  
'combating stalking' so far have proved counter productive. The  
setting up of a private invitation only "Wikistalking Mailing List"  
especially. While well intentioned, has lead to a large amount of  
mistrust in that it is seen as a secret administrator cabal. It does  
seem to have become an unfortunate knee jerk reaction that the  
solution to problems on wikipedia can only be solved by a secret Jimbo  
approved cabal.

   - John