[WikiEN-l] Dealing with stalking- was"WR's secret forum and list"

[joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu]

Quoting Michael Noda <michael.noda at gmail.com>:

> On Dec 11, 2007 2:59 PM, jayjg <jayjg99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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.)

Well, I'm not generally a fan of Kelly but this makes an excellent point. My
only concern is that having the Foundation get that involved could intertwine
the Foundation with the individual projects more than we want. The Foundation
is more important than any one editor and we must make sure that it is not
liable. That said, this might work. Has anyone discussed it with Foundation
higher ups.