[WikiEN-l] Oversight or RevisionDelete

[Andrew Turvey]

Many thanks for that reply - very useful to have the facts out in the open and I hope it helps to build trust. 

> > 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. 

In many cases, that makes sense. However, in this case, the sensitive material was only sensitive at the time - once the subject was released there was no continuing risk. 

As you mentioned, oversight wasn't necessary in this case. However, it's not inconceivable that another case where oversight is used might also be "temporarily sensitive". Perhaps, for instance, if it has been used in a suspected harassment that turns out to be something else. 

In that case, it might make sense for the "book policy" to allow disclosure (or even reversal) of the oversight in these cases. 

----- "FT2" <ft2.wiki at gmail.com> wrote: 
> From: "FT2" <ft2.wiki at gmail.com> 
> To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org> 
> Sent: Thursday, 16 July, 2009 21:20:04 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal 
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] News suppression: Did it use Oversight or RevisionDelete? 
> 
> 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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