On 4 June 2012 16:11, Nathan <nawr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 3:59 PM, Risker <risker...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> >> On 4 June 2012 13:34, Nathan <nawr...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Sarah Stierch >>> <sarah.stie...@gmail.com>wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> I do believe that sexual harassment directed towards women does effect >>>> the gender gap - perhaps not so much, but, after my Women and Wikimedia >>>> Survey almost half of women did state that they were assaulted or harassed >>>> on Wikipedia in some context and almost half said no, that's more than >>>> women said a sexualized environment was impacting them. For me, this is >>>> more deterimental then the accidental stumbling upon of porn on Wikipedia. >>>> There have been moments in my Wikipedia-existence that I have wanted to >>>> leave the community due to harassment, and I know I'm surely not the only >>>> woman on this list who feels that way. I always like reading about how >>>> people are handling situations like this on the internet, as I can only >>>> learn from them. >>>> >>>> So, whether it's deterring current or future editors, I do think it's >>>> more relevant than pornography at this time. >>>> >>>> But, perhaps I'm wrong! >>>> >>>> -Sarah >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> In the context of Wikipedia editing, what does it mean to have been >>> "assaulted"? >>> >>> >> That's a good question, Nathan. In my workplace, we classify assaults as >> physical and verbal; I suppose from the WMF-project perspective, we'd be >> looking at (mainly) verbal assaults, either onwiki or via email. >> >> There have been some genuine, documented stalking situations (in the true >> sense of the word, with off-wiki contacts that include phone calls and >> sometimes even a physical presence), but they are presumably quite rare. >> >> I'd also say that neither are limited to being directed at female users; >> however, particularly given the small number of women editing on the >> projects, I suspect that they are disproportionately at the receiving end >> of such behaviour. I have no evidence that this is the case, though. >> >> Risker/Anne >> >> > Ok. To ask a follow-up, and I'm sorry if this is a dense question but I > genuinely don't have the answer, what is an example of a verbal assault? I > understand the wiki-parameters of harassment, and can recognize insults and > rude behavior etc., but I'm just not sure what I would classify as an > assault among purely text-based exchanges. > >
I'd suggest it would be blatant personal attacks as opposed to the lower level harassment. I can remember once reading "You're so useless, I wouldn't even clean the toilet with you", and was only sad that another admin beat me to the block button for that one. I remember when we were taking our "safe workplace training", the educators said that verbal assaults left the victim feeling essentially the same as if they had been physically attacked, except for the physical injury: that is, humiliated, powerless, shocked and "beaten". They described it as "the way you'd feel if someone slapped your face, except that your cheek doesn't hurt". Maybe others could give some examples of where they'd say verbal aggression went beyond annoying into what they might feel is verbal assault? Risker/Anne
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