[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

[Ray Saintonge]

Harel Cain wrote:
> I agree with others here that there is a distinction to be made
> between a wiki-war gone out of control (where the warring parties
> would be long time users, in most cases) and the really nasty cases of
> stalking, threats, libelous publications and the like, usually
> directed by recently arrived (banned?) users at long time users,
> mainly those who blocked them.
>   
It is important then that whatever policy is adopted need to include a 
clear definition of what we mean by stalking.  Without that there are 
too many individuals who will treat any kind of opposition to their 
views as stalking, and proceed to make a big public show of their 
accusations.
> I don't think the Foundation can do anything practical to handle this
> second type of cases, which are clearly in the legal sphere between
> victim, victimizer (and state persecution), and I agree that taking
> wiki actions against these cases just downplays them into the wiki
> drama (which is too inflated anyway, and which we have to abate, not
> encourage). But there has to be a very clear signal coming from the
> Foundation that these issues are taken very seriously and will not be
> tolerated. It's all on the declaratory sphere, not the practical one.
>   
I definitely agree that bringing offsite nastiness on wiki only tends to 
inflame an already bad situation.  Where the offsite threats are legally 
actionable, our continued discussion of the problem could even weaken 
the legal case against the trouble-maker.

While it does not justify stalking, I wonder how many of these 
individuals could have been kept if they had not had to deal with zealots.

Ec