[WikiEN-l] WR's secret forum and list

[Michael Noda]

On Dec 11, 2007 2:59 PM, jayjg <jayjg99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Dec 11, 2007 2:30 PM, Michael Noda <michael.noda at gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> > Indeed.  I haven't been directly involved in a harassment or stalking
> > incident (yet; I figure that as long as I'm an active editor here my
> > number's bound to come up eventually), but I'd like to be of use in
> > the creation of a real Anti-Harassment and Anti-Stalking incident,
> > because it's a Big Serious Deal.  The seriousness of the issue, and my
> > depth of caring about it, are also why I the current main advocates
> > for victims of harassment annoy me so much; they handle their own
> > cases poorly *and then turn around and encourage others to emulate
> > their errors.*  This is then compounded by displays of hostility
> > towards anyone fool enough to question whatever the current approach
> > is.  Unlike the entire rest of the project, this is not an area we can
> > give amateur opinions in and let our mistakes work themselves out; for
> > the vast majority of victims, there <s>will</s> should be only one
> > incident, and only one chance to get it right.
> >
> > For the serious cases that are our real concern, we need involvement
> > of professional law enforcement more than amateur sleuthing,
> > restraining orders more than whack-a-mole blocks, and we need people
> > to know when and how to invoke these things.  Right now, our standard
> > modus operandi is to blither around like drunken giants until things
> > blow up out of control.  We need to do better.
>
> I think the problem here is that unless the stalking is egregious,
> it's very hard to get the police involved. As far as I know there has
> been one successful instance of that, and in that case not only was
> the stalking beyond scary, but the stalker made the mistake of
> stalking several individuals, including one who happens to be quite
> well-known and wealthy. Even so, that stalker was out of jail within
> months, and continues to sockpuppet on Wikipedia.
>
> So, what do you to in the cases where it's not serious enough to
> involved the police? Say, for example, people start investigating your
> edits, discover who you are, and call your elderly father, or an old
> girlfriend, or old work colleagues, or your boss. Perhaps they manage
> to get some scurrilous and damaging bit of invented nonsense published
> on slashdot or some sensationalist online rag. If the harasser doesn't
> do anything overtly threatening, then the police won't get involved.
> How can Wikipedia respond?

As it happens, Kelly Martin outlines exactly how one does this (and
otherwise successfully create an anti-stalking policy environment) in
a blog post that went up in the last couple hours.

Relevant excerpt:

"Had the Foundation formally notified a stalker that he or she was
denied permission to access Wikipedia, the Foundation could then press
charges for computer trespass against the stalker when he or she
subsequently accessed the site. Such charges would give the
authorities leverage to put the perp away; proving that case is far
easier than proving the much harder stalking or harassment case --
especially when the victim refuses to personally identify himself or
herself to authorities."

(The rest of the post is definitely worth reading.  It can be found at
http://nonbovine-ruminations.blogspot.com/2007/12/wikipedia-al-qaeda.html
It is, of course, in Ms. Martin's inimitable style; but she's not
wrong on this.)