[WikiEN-l] Threats policy

[George Herbert]

On 10/16/07, Avi <avi.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> With the couple of suicide notes in the past few weeks, and now this
> issue about school violence threats (see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Terroristic_threat_made_in_school_article
> )
>
> I think it would be prudent if there were an "official" or
> semi-official policy/How-To set up, similar to the revised WP:SUICIDE.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> --Avi

I just posted on-thread there, but I think I generally agree that it
would be a good thing.

For many of the same reasons as with potentially suicidal users, we're
not equipped or trained to make a judgement as to the credibility of
an apparent death threat.  Punt to the authorities, notify the WMF
Office, notify on ANI, revert the edits and block the user.

If it turns out to be a joke in poor taste and no actual threat of
violence, we have at least minimized drama here that way.  If it was
credible, or somewhat credible, we may have avoided something really
bad happening.

I tend to agree that in this particular case the odds appear high that
it's just a bad joke, but I think that the punt to the school and
police was still entirely appropriate.



-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com