(changing the topic back)

On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Sylvia Ventura <slventura@gmail.com> wrote:

Anne, you're absolutely right on the 'high profile'. The broader the reach, impact, exposure, the more likely you are to become the target of good and bad 'attention'. The question is, much like in real-life, the higher up you are in an organization the more 'support' and/or protection you will likely need/get, as a community  should we be able to insure a similar mechanism. This community resilience won't be built on a MadMax fighting-your-way-through model (I know it's rather dramatic :)

From all the stories I've heard over the years, admins and arbitrators get the worst of it -- being in a position where you delete articles or mediate disputes on the project (and let's face it, the folks who get into arbitration-type situations on wikipedia are often not the most stable or reasonable people on earth) seems to be the most direct way to potentially exposing yourself to lots of harassment. And if you're identified as female, it's way worse.

Conversely from my experiences being pretty visible on the *organizational* side of things (and talking to colleagues), there is a low level of harassment that comes with that gig, but *nothing* like the horror stories I've heard from some admins.

This is clearly untenable; the projects need to grow experienced contributors who can serve in positions of leadership and as mentors on the projects, and we can't expect everyone to just suck it up ("so sorry, you will have to work with crazy people"). I worry that folks often just find themselves unsupported. I don't know what the answer is.

-- phoebe

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