[Wikimedia-l] Please, let's save the Wikipedia - from itself

[Lars Gardenius]

привет Ярослав,

Yes, I am very serious. I was though only arguing about the members of this instance, be it an 'arbitration committe' or an ombudsman or whatever, with the duty to protect users from mobbing and abuses in the Wikis.

We must though be aware that there are very different countries in the world. What is possible in one part of the world is not possible in another. I am aware of the present situation in Russia and pity the Russians. I think the Wikis should at least reflect the society they are working in, not be worse, and it could be difficult to be better (I am still just talking about stopping mobbing and abuses in the Wikis).

I am certain that a committe could help against mobbing in Wikis even in Russia and in other countries with similar kind of problems. You could though perhaps, for reason that you express, not get any help from the outside society. If the members of such a committe would have any problems with the authorities or hooligans in such a country I don't know, but that could be an argument for placing it outside Russia (and other countries). Perhaps even just have one international instance.

Let me tell you a little about my own experiences to explain what I wrote. In my country we have a lot of ombudsmen to protect citizens from child abuse, harassment of immigrants and a lot of other things. The persons working with these questions are very public, you can find their names, photos etc. on the web. I have had a lot of contacts with these people during the last year. I have never heard of one single instance when they have been attacked, harassed or anything else. That is quite natural, I think, they have the protection of the surrounding society. If someone harassed or abused them, he/she be sued or arrested.

The situation is the same for people working against mobbing in schools and companies. They are of course also public persons. Still I have never heard of anyone being attacked. The reason is the same as above. If these persons were anonymous it would partly look very stupid and partly they could not do their job properly.

I do not see any reason why the situation wouldn't be the same for such an instance in the Wikis. As I said above the persons must be professional and hired by the Wikis, to get the right authority and respect. Where they are placed physically is not so important since there role is only to act within the Wikis (not in the society), perhaps one shouldn't choose Russia though.

I really think that it also has a psychological role not to be anonymous. The method of mobbers and extreme political movements is to dehumanize it's opponents. They put a label on their enemies to make them not human. I think being anonymous works in the same direction. It deprives you of your identity and thus makes you easier to attack.

Regards,
Lars Gardenius




________________________________
 Von: Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru>
An: Lars Gardenius <lars.gardenius at yahoo.de>; Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org> 
Gesendet: 13:36 Samstag, 7.September 2013
Betreff: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Please, let's save the Wikipedia - from itself
 

On 07.09.2013 00:12, Lars Gardenius wrote:
  People are much less willing to attack someone who they feel they
> know. The persons who still attack are often mentally instable and
> easy to track and report to the police.
> 
> Regards,
> lars Gardenius
> 

Are you fucking serious? I was editing under my real name for three 
years, and even now my real name is pretty easy to figure out. At one 
point, in the Russian Wikipedia, I protected an article to prevent a 
vanity editing of a lady who claimed to be a psychologist and the 
chairwoman of some union of psychologist. As a revenge, she made a 
search, found my university website, and published a piece where she 
made, on the alleged claim she is a psychologist, some very suggestive 
(and wrong) statements about my sexual orientation, my IQ, and my mental 
health. What police you are talking about? Dutch police? They would not 
care about a piece written in Russian and published in Russia. Russian 
police? They are worse than ordinary criminals, and it would be crazy to 
go to them and ask for something. Formally, there is no attack anyway, 
but the piece was still published, indexed by search engines, and 
noticed by some of the people I know.

Cheers
Yaroslav