[WikiEN-l] Threats made on Wikipedia

[Fred Bauder]

> On 12/22/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> A random Wikipedian will likely be reasonably smart and capable of
>> contacting people, even if they can't reasonably be expected to be
>> skilled in what to do in such an issue.
>
>> (Also, it helps the Foundation if you let them know too - who you are,
>> who you contacted - in case of the precise "who could have helped with
>> this?" scenario you outline.)
>
> Wouldn't it be better if someone from the foundation did it, wherever
> possible? Building an encyclopaedia via the wiki model is great. But
> responding to suicide and/or terrorist threats? Let's do it properly.
>
> Steve

The foundation doesn't have the staff. Best to copy any correspondence to
Mike Godwin, but do it yourself, if you feel capable of making a simple
sane report of the incident to a responsible party. Simply identify
yourself as a Wikipedia editor. If you identify yourself as an
administrator, it confuses them, as they reasonably imagine you are an
executive. You can usually get an email address by googling the school.
Provide a link to the offending edit but don't offer the ip if it is not
publicly visible. They are required to obtain a court order to get that.
If you delete or oversight the edit, you complicate things, as the school,
or law enforcement cannot view it.

Fred