[Wikipedia-l] link for complaints

[Jean-Baptiste Soufron]

I totally support your idea.

I am on irc and on juriwiki-l on a 24/24 basis to answer legal issues  
as best as I can and tell people when I can't, but people seem to  
come mainly by luck or because someone else told them.

It would not be difficult to precise in every page that authors are  
responsible for what they write and that they should get some advice  
if they don't feel comfortable with something, assuming that we don't  
endorse any editing role or whatever... just mention that we exist if  
they have nothing else.

I am certain that simply adding such a precision would greatly  
improve the legal security on wikipedia.

Le 3 juin 05 à 17:12, David Monniaux a écrit :

> I think that all Wikipedia pages should contain somewhere (say, at the
> bottom) a link to a page where people could complain about the content
> of the articles. (I'm talking here of complaints about breach of
> privacy, copyright violation, libel etc.)
>
> Currently, people have nowhere clear to go to. We get messages on the
> Village Pump or equivalent, by private email to participants (often
> unrelated to the articles), by emails to the Foundation board, by  
> email
> to public mailing lists.
>
> This, to me, is deeply unsatisfactory:
> * By providing no obvious way for people to complain about  
> articles, we
> give the impression of some unreliable, irresponsible group.
> * While people look for a way to contact us, they become  
> frustrated. As
> a result, their complaint may become unnecessarily accusatory and  
> angry.
> * We also incite people to make legal threats to get some attention.
> * When people write to public lists, they attract undue attention to
> issues that should be better dealt with in the calm - some  
> inflammatory
> email with legal threats will result in some angry answers, and all  
> can
> escalate.
> * If people have a really legitimate problem, they have little  
> recourse.
>
> You will say, hey, they can simply edit the wiki. This simply does not
> work. Many people don't understand the editing process and simply  
> can't
> do it. Furthermore, some well-meaning contributors may see their  
> awkward
> efforts as "vandalism" and revert them. This gives people the  
> impression
> that their edits are refused or that some "censorship" is implemented.
>
> This is not imaginary. I'll spare you the details, but within one week
> the French association mailing-list received legal threats from two
> sources, both alleging bad treatment from Wikipedia. In both cases,  
> the
> legal claims are dubious; but they can be an annoyance and would be
> better dealt with in a friendly agreement than if lawyers get  
> involved.
>
> Somebody remarked to me that we could, as many professional sites  
> have,
> have a complaint page. The user would first have to answer some
> multiple-choice questions, meant for weeding out "non urgent"  
> complaints
> (i.e. things such as "the birth date of XXX is incorrect"); or, these
> complaints could be sent to the talk page. Finally, if the reason  
> seems
> to fit a legitimate "sensitive" category, they would have a form open
> for typing their message or would obtain some link to a complaint  
> email
> address.
>
> I think that as we become one of the foremost Internet sites, we will
> have more of the sort. We should have means so that simple problems
> don't escalate into full blown confrontations. Remember that even  
> if we
> win, that's still a lot of frustration and lost time.
>
>
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