[WikiEN-l] threats of violence

[Bryan Derksen]

Risker wrote:
> At best, this should be a guideline, and only when the language is watered
> down so that it says things like "encouraged but not obligated" and
> recognises that editors are not *required* to carry out any specific
> actions.

Ideally, IMO, something like this should be informative rather than 
prescriptive. Quite a few years back I had a nerve-wracking night on IRC 
talking with someone I knew who lived in another country and who was 
threatening to commit suicide right then and there, and it would have 
been really nice to have had a website at my fingertips that had a list 
of phone numbers I could use to contact authorities in various places. 
But I didn't need a page telling me I _should_ call someone. :)

(In my particular case things worked out fine anyway as we were able to 
talk the person down without any medical emergency. In hindsight it was 
obviously an attention-getting mechanism, if you seriously intend to 
kill yourself you don't bring it up with friends before doing it, but of 
course one should never treat it as such.)

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