[WikiEN-l] Proposal: Harassment victim support fund

[Thomas Dalton]

> Some options:
>
>     * The community at large, in the same way we determine other things

The community are very bad at determining such controversial things.
And there would generally be privacy concerns about having such
discussions in public.

>     * ArbCom (sorry, guys)

Maybe. It's not their job, though, and I doubt they want it.

>     * The WMF legal counsel
>     * Jimbo

I don't think the WMF would like to be seen to be taking sides - could
get nasty.

> > 2) The main problems with harassment are not financial. It's the
> > hassle, the fear of what they might do next, and annoyance at what
> > they are doing, etc. You can sometimes partially solve some of those
> > problems by throwing money at them, but not to a great extent.
> >
>
> That's partly true. We certainly can't undo the damage. (Although
> perhaps adding a home security service or support from a counsellor
> could help a little.)
>
> But the cash to request a restraining order could make a real
> difference. Ditto for assistance in getting the police involved. Trying
> to get cops or a DA to do anything involving the Internet is a giant
> pain in the as. Paying for an experienced lawyer to lean on them or a
> real PI to gather proof could also make a huge difference.

I'm sure it would help, but would it help enough to be worth it?

> But I intend this partly to have a deterrent effect. If we have 10k in
> the bank plus the promise for more when it's needed, that will make the
> more crafty type of abuser think twice. Even more so if we get a couple
> of civil judgments, restraining orders, or arrests and make some noise
> about it.

We would have to go out of our way to make sure everyone knows we have
the money and are willing to spend it on taking people down. There is
a WP:BEANS risk involved there, if nothing else.

> > You last type of support - legal costs for someone being sued - is a
> > different matter really. It's a much more obvious situation, so much
> > easy to dish out money for. However, I don't think a fund is required
> > just for that. I'm pretty sure that if I block someone and they sue
> > me, I can just put the details of a paypal account on AN, VP, this
> > mailing list, etc. and get plenty of money pretty quickly.
> >
>
> Good point.
>
> The reason to gather the money now would again be a deterrent effect.
> Plus making it clear to editors that they will be supported if it comes
> to that.

People don't generally sue unless they think they have case (there are
exceptions, of course) - if they think they're going to win anyway,
they won't really worry about whether or not the editor can afford a
good lawyer. I think editors generally know they would be supported if
it got that bad.