Dear James,
As I made clear in our conversation yesterday, this happened to me, but has can and could have happened to almost everyone of the other participants at this conference.
Yes, we need to respect the privacy of the people who reported they were uncomfortable, and it is a very very very sad thing they have been uncomfortable. But this whole situation makes me very uncomfortable. I am trying to be always as friendly as possible, to help anyone the best as possible, it is sad for me to feel that we do not know any longer if you help someone if you are then still safe or getting reported about you.
In the past 24 hours I have been touched (hands, hugs, hand on shoulder, etc) over 50 times by various people, many I know, some I don't. Only once I was asked if I was fine with it. In many regions in the world it is normal to shake hands, hug someone, etc etc. We do need to be aware of that in some cultures this is not common, as well as individuals do not find it comfortable. We also need to be aware that we as humans cannot switch off the way we are. We need to create a friendly space for *everyone*. To my feeling the focus is too much on not giving some people a bad feeling, but we also must respect the nature of people, how people normally are, because if we don't, we create an unfriendly space for them.
Now too many people are scared to touch someone else, scared to make a mistake. That is bad. It is good to have awareness of cultural differences, it is good if everyone tries to respect each others personal space.
It is not right that if someone tries to be nice, this gives a bad feeling to the other. If then someone gets punished ("action is taken"), we are putting the health of our community at risk.
You said to me in our conversation yesterday that you do not recommend me to send the earlier mail I did send. I can understand why you ask this, but for my feeling I had no other choice. Every day many many people greet me and ask me how I am feeling. If I am feeling bad, I say so. I am too emotional to explain it to every one of them. A second reason I raised attention for what happened to me, is because the whole goal of the friendly space policy is to create a friendly space, while now it is actually an unfriendly space for many just because of the action you took. In my case, you say it is not punishment, but it has bad consequences that are only a placebo and do not help to solve the situation and certainly does not improve the situation. That is a very bad thing.
The friendly space policy is intended to create a friendly space for everyone, now however many perceive an unfriendly space, that is a serious problem. We need to get a better and balanced situation in how is dealt with these situations.
At this conference it might be a bit early to discuss the topic in general, but still I think it we need to be aware that this problem exist. I also think we need to have a dialogue in our movement about this kind of situations where people perceive harassment while the other has the best intentions.
Romaine
2018-07-20 12:28 GMT+02:00 James Alexander jalexander@wikimedia.org:
Hey all,
I am, as always, sorry, that this has spilled out into the public sphere more I do not think that is ever a good thing as discussion of specific situations like this only serves to increase discomfort, make people feel even less safe and make victims of everyone.
Event Safety and Friendly Spaces is a top priority of any conference whether big or small as well as one of the issues that can be most difficult to deal with since it is always a balance of situations, feelings and people who are frequently acting in good faith. I can confirm that Trust & Safety was involved here and, like most people who are working on Friendly Spaces, we never aim to take serious actions if we are able to avoid it. Most issues are dealt with by local attendees or organizing volunteers with only short reminders or chats and escalate from there only as things become more serious or repetitive. The same is true for T&S who generally doesn't even become involved until it is a larger situation. I will admit that whenever a local organizer or volunteer is involved the seriousness is increased some because they are, rightly or wrongly, seen as in a position of influence and power which amplifies any and all issues that arise. It does not, however, change the focus of trying to take the least amount of actions possible.
I will be the first to admit (and did when talking to Romaine yesterday) that he has done an enormous amount of great work for events and nothing we did was meant to demean that even if it felt that way to Romaine. Like any Friendly Spaces actions nothing we did was meant as a punishment (even though, again, I understand it can feel that way) but was done because we felt they were the best thing to do for event safety. I can certainly guarantee that the decision was not taken lightly.
As many have noted the entire story is not out in the open and, honestly, won't be. I know that won't make everyone happy but unfortunately is almost always going to be the case for specific cases. If you want to speak about process questions and the like, the team (including myself) is certainly willing to do so. We have a table on the 2nd floor or you can grab one of us around the conference.
James
*James Alexander* Manager, Trust & Safety (Operations) Wikimedia Foundation
On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 11:40 AM Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk wrote:
On 20 July 2018 at 09:23, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
I trust that [...] the Trust & Safety team has the best intentions in their implementation
I note that Romaine does not mention the team in his email, only that there was a "demand" that he stand down; he did not say who made this demand.
Indeed, the only mention of the T&S team before yours was my call for them to support a member of the community who seems to feel he has been discriminated against because of the effects of his hearing issue.
-- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l