[WikiEN-l] External harassment

[Steve Summit]

jayjg wrote:
> Currently a number of editors are working on a guideline to deal with
> this issue, at
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Linking_to_external_harassment
>
> What, if any, do you see as the differences between their work and
> your own proposal?

Well, what I wrote certainly wasn't a "proposal"; it was merely
my attempt to distill the essential elements of the argument and
(perhaps) their emerging consensus, as I saw them.  (Though I
concede that the third point was more wishful thinking on my
part than the first two.)  My intent was not to propose policy,
but rather focus discussion.

> What deficiencies do you see in the guideline as it
> currently stands?

On that guideline's talk page, GTBacchus wrote, "I can't keep
up with the mailing list."  But me, I can't always keep up with
policy and talk pages.  So I can't answer that yet.

It's starting to look like a crucial issue is, as I wrote on the
guideline's talk page just now, the distinction between "linking
to harass" and "linking to harassment".  Everyone agrees on (not
doing) the former; it's the latter that's much more problematical.
If we want to ban mere links to harassment, we have a lot more
work to do in defining what that means, and articulating why we
want to, and resolving conflicts with other core policies, and
limiting collateral damage.