On 27 January 2017 at 09:21, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote: ...
Do I understand correctly that this particular initiative will focus on fighting harassment, and not necessarily on preventing it? Basically in a similar pattern that vandalism is fought on most wikipedia projects?
I really hope that prevention, education and (social) training will become a major point in the overall agenda, but I can imagine that we can't pay all that from the single grant :) So I just would like to place it in the proper context.
Best, Lodewijk
+1 Spot on.
The plan appears to hinge on blocks as the outcome. Based on cases of long term harassment targeted at individuals which invariably involved off-wiki doxxing or contacting friends and family members of their target, blocking Wikimedia accounts is an approach that may remove Wikimedia projects as a platform but does little to help reform the person causing harassment. I would rather see systems that include reaching out to the apparent harasser to help them recognize and deal with their anger or obsessive issues. Treating badly behaved individuals as the "other", without aiming for a lasting resolution, means we are back to the old days of telling the unfortunate target/victim to change their identity or grow a thicker skin as the on-line harassment may never stop.
Fae