On 6/25/2014 11:50 PM, Sarah wrote:
We've got Wikipedia:Gendergap
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Gendergap> that we could do
something with, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic
bias/Gender bias task force
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias/Gender_bias_task_force>,
which has members but hasn't been active.
Sarah
Thanks, Sarah. The first links to Meta. I completely forgot about the
Gender Bias task force which I signed on to but evidently unwatched
during some period of frustration. Of course, the task force only
focuses on working on articles, not behavior problems women editors need
help with.
Re: issue of discussing content vs. behavior issues off wikipedias, I
just remembered a recent ANI where a female editor complained that a
male editor was criticizing her harshly on a few off-wiki sites for
problematic content in her science-related edits. While he was judged
insensitive, he wasn't sanctioned and such off wiki criticism was
supported. One editor wrote that "Criticising the quality of an
editor's work, whether here or elsewhere, is not harassment. " and "If
you would like to curtail editors' freedom to speak out about
Wikipedia's failings in public, this in itself will be a media story,
and rightly so." Should behavior toward women be considered as part of
editors' work??
For more details on this case see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incid…
(Also see the resulting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_review/Cwmhiraeth about
the complaining female editor and another editor's complaint about it
being a "show trial" at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incid…
) Perhaps the female editor was judged too assertive in looking for
DYKs and Good articles, while didn't fact checking/referencing carefully
enough. Not stereotypically female behavior?
However, questioning behavior too aggressively off wikipedia evidently
remains a no no. I was once blocked for a week for asking an editor
whether his overwhelming history of editing in articles about bondage of
females was related to his obvious and annoying harassment of me on a
noticeboard, after which I mentioned the issue on the Wikia Feminism
page which I thought was a part of Wikipedia (duh). The latter
evidently was the bigger "no no".
These are the kind of stories we used to tell here but don't any more.
Where can we??
Is Wikipedia ready for women discussing how to deal with specific issues
involving bad male editor behavior on or off wikipedia. Would a
concerted effort by women to get the community to OK that work? Of
course, a concerted effort to just consciousness raise on the issues
generally would be great. There is a facebook group where occasionally
something specific is mentioned. And going straight to ANI with
problems you aren't sure about is difficult; even going to ANI with real
problems and real diffs can be fruitless, especially if you are up
against people who just make stuff up and don't even provide diffs.
Perhaps the Gender Gap task force at least could allow links to actual
ongoing ANIs/Editor Reviews/Arbitrations/noticeboards/etc.
One thing that I could not find searching en.Wikipedia is an Essay
called something like KEEPING WOMEN ON WIKIPEDIA that would deal
explicitly with the problems women face and the various solutions, going
though the list of Dispute resolution options, Wikiprojects and other
support efforts, including at Meta. Also include some of the points
mentioned in the Geek Feminism article linked by Valerie:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Statement_of_purpose:_communities_includ…
Of course, we would need some admins willing to quickly ban disruptive
(probably male) editors from editing that essay.
Such an essay could be linked to a number of relevant projects and help
pages and copied to all the languages.
Thoughts?
CM