[WikiEN-l] Proposal: Harassment victim support fund

[Andrew Gray]

On 17/10/2007, Phil Sandifer <Snowspinner at gmail.com> wrote:

> >     * Legal support to someone frivolously sued for legitimate and
> >       beneficial on-Wikipedia activity.
>
> It has always been my assumption (though an untested one) that the
> Foundation would step in on this level.

Mmm, though there might be legal issues with actually saying upfront
we intend to - I don't know what Florida (or California, or federal,
or whatever) charity laws are like with regards to using funds for
not-strictly-relevant purposes like paying your volunteers legal
bills. I suspect they're looser than they are over here, but even
loose can still be stifling.

> The point here being that we have a lot to lose by making a fund such
> as this.

Legal issues aside, having the Foundation in any way required (or
strongly expected) to step in - by having such a dedicated fund or by
any other means - leaves us open to the potential for some very
unfortunate overreaction. It also leaves us open to the potential for
being gamed, or for being placed in a no-win situation - imagine the
perfectly plausible situation where the user being harassed turns out
to be someone the Foundation, or most of the community, would balk at
standing next to at a press conference.

And Lord help the day we get people whining "We collected all this
money, we ought to use it, and ---- still hasn't shut up..."

I like the idea; I like that the community is making a tangible
statement of its willingness to support one another by encouraging
practical activity outside of its own sphere. But I think that, for
now, statements are all that are required.

Send the money when someone *has* the problem and takes action; I
think you'll get a good and tangible response to a specific call, and
you'll avoid having to have a fuss over whether or not the money
"ought to be released for this case", etc.

But actually having an account with the money sitting in it? I think
that's more of a liability than a benefit, all things considered.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk