[WikiEN-l] News suppression: Did it use Oversight or RevisionDelete?

[FT2]

Update: I've now checked the case, and yes I had heard of this matter. But
being on a break for the last few weeks to deal with real-world matters, I
hadn't made the connection just from the words "Rohde/NYT". I checked which
article with Rohde in the title, also covered the NYT as well. Luckily there
was only one.

Quick explanation :)

FT2


On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 9:06 PM, FT2 <ft2.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> A quick answer.
>
> I have no idea which dispute or real-world issue this was about, nor when.
> I'm assuming following a quick search the page concerned is "David S.
> Rohde".
>
> When oversight or revision delete are used, it's almost without exception
> for serious reasons, for example where there is a concern over potential
> defamation or breach of privacy policy in the post. Not mere offensive
> comments, and not mere undesirability. A significant number of users
> cross-check each other on it, and there is an audit committee on english
> wikipedia to investigate any concerns as well. Privacy issues are taken
> extremely seriously.
>
> When oversight or suppression are used, it's book policy that oversighters
> almost never discuss or disclose anything, beyond what can be seen openly in
> the public logs. The trust required is why oversighter selection is a big
> deal. The underlying reason for the policy is that sometimes just having
> confirmation that a person or topic was targeted can be enough to do serious
> harm, when genuine cases such as stalking and serious harassment etc are
> intended by someone, if you think about it. (And if some were answered and
> others weren't then things might be read into a non-answer.)
>
> So the standard answer to all inquiries of this kind by any oversighter is
> "we don't discuss such matters, but we will look and check nothing untoward
> has happened, if you would like"
>
> However in this case I have discussed the inquiry and can confirm, that no
> material was or has ever been oversighted or suppressed (using
> revisiondelete) from the article I think you're referring to, "[[David S.
> Rohde]]".
>
> Hopefully that's enough to put your mind at rest. Don't count on such
> confirmation another time -- it's exceedingly rare to get it :)
>
> FT2
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 7:41 PM, Joseph Reagle <reagle at mit.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Does anyone know if during the NYT/Rohde case the Oversight function was
>> used to hide edits? When the story broke, I could see all the edit history,
>> but I presume the function can be deployed against select revisions and then
>> removed? Or maybe it was the new RevisionDelete?
>>
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>
>