Thomas Dalton wrote:
An interesting idea... it could work. Here are the problems I see straight away:
- Who decides how to dish out the money? Determining if someone is
really being harassed is very difficult (due, in no small part, to the subjective nature of the term "harassment"), and deciding if their expenses are true and reasonable is even harder.
Some options:
* The community at large, in the same way we determine other things * ArbCom (sorry, guys) * The WMF legal counsel * Jimbo
- The main problems with harassment are not financial. It's the
hassle, the fear of what they might do next, and annoyance at what they are doing, etc. You can sometimes partially solve some of those problems by throwing money at them, but not to a great extent.
That's partly true. We certainly can't undo the damage. (Although perhaps adding a home security service or support from a counsellor could help a little.)
But the cash to request a restraining order could make a real difference. Ditto for assistance in getting the police involved. Trying to get cops or a DA to do anything involving the Internet is a giant pain in the as. Paying for an experienced lawyer to lean on them or a real PI to gather proof could also make a huge difference.
But I intend this partly to have a deterrent effect. If we have 10k in the bank plus the promise for more when it's needed, that will make the more crafty type of abuser think twice. Even more so if we get a couple of civil judgments, restraining orders, or arrests and make some noise about it.
You last type of support - legal costs for someone being sued - is a different matter really. It's a much more obvious situation, so much easy to dish out money for. However, I don't think a fund is required just for that. I'm pretty sure that if I block someone and they sue me, I can just put the details of a paypal account on AN, VP, this mailing list, etc. and get plenty of money pretty quickly.
Good point.
The reason to gather the money now would again be a deterrent effect. Plus making it clear to editors that they will be supported if it comes to that.
William