Hi all, As someone who deals with a lot of long-term abuse on the community side, I can give a bit of a comment here. Most of the abuse response comes from the community, not the WMF- they only get involved through their Trust & Safety team on the worst cases.
Our ability to deal with block evasion is limited at best. Anyone who wants to is able to by-pass a block through a mobile range or a proxy, and often times to deal with block evasion we end up blocking ranges which include a lot of collateral damage. The Inspire campaign doesn't seem to be directed at this, but there are ways that we could improve our abuse response - the primary one being an email requirement on account creation, and giving some users the ability to check accounts based on their email. This has been done on Wikia, and when combined with IP blocks has been very effective in reducing long-term abuse. But it is very unlikely to happen here. It will never be possible to totally remove this sort of harassment, because these are cases where the system has initially worked, but the user is evading the system. As an open website, we only have a limited ability to protect against that, and that will always be the case. And unfortunately, this isn't an area that a code of conduct or any of those proposals would help with. Adrian Raddatz On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 10:48 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Pax and Pete, > > It sounds like part of the issue in this case may be that may we need more > effective tools for dealing with troublemakers who are banned but continue > to return and cause problems. I'm wondering if Patrick Early can comment on > what efforts WMF is making in terms of dealing with persistent block > evasion. > > Pine > On Jun 5, 2016 07:13, "Pax Ahimsa Gethen" <list-wikime...@funcrunch.org> > wrote: > > > I am defining harassment primarily as personal attacks, not merely > > disputes (even strongly-worded disagreement) over content. > > > > Some examples of what I consider harassment: > > > > - Vandalizing an editor's user or talk page (hence my Inspire proposal: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Protect_user_space_by_default > > ) > > > > - Making derogatory comments about an editor's gender, sex, race, > > ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or (dis)ability > > > > - Posting personal information about an editor that was gathered off-Wiki > > > > - Evading bans with IP-hopping to do any of the above. > > > > These actions not only cause "net harm to community health," they cause > > unnecessary, avoidable harm to specific individuals, and discourage > > marginalized people from participating in the project. > > > > - Pax > > > > > > On 6/5/16 5:09 AM, Pine W wrote: > > > >> Hi Pax, > >> > >> I agree that blaming the victim is an unsatisfactory resolution. > >> > >> On the other hand, defining what is meant by "incivility" and > "harassment" > >> can be very tricky. Just because there is a strong disagreement doesn't > >> imply that people are being uncivil, and we cannot expect that no one > will > >> ever lose his or her temper when provoked. Similarly, a pattern of > >> disagreement doesn't necessarily imply harassment, and the presumption > of > >> good faith is rebuttable which means that questioning the motives of > >> others > >> is occasionally OK. > >> > >> So, as Sumana once said, we have a tricky situation with regards to > >> balancing free speech with hospitality. > >> > >> I think there are situations in which behavior is egregious enough that > it > >> is a net harm to community health and cannot be excused. For example, > >> comments that demean someone on the basis of race, gender, age, > >> nationality, or religious or political beliefs, are generally out of > >> bounds. > >> > >> I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about how we should define > >> harassment, and how we should seek to reduce the frequency of it on > >> Wikimedia sites. > >> > >> Thank you for speaking up. > >> > >> Pine > >> On Jun 4, 2016 19:15, "Pax Ahimsa Gethen" <list-wikime...@funcrunch.org > > > >> wrote: > >> > >> Hi all, I'm Pax aka Funcrunch [1]. I've been a Wikipedian since 2008, > but > >>> this is my first post to this mailing list. (I've been reading list > >>> messages on the archives page occasionally for the last several > months.) > >>> > >>> I'm writing because of a concern I have about the community's attitude > >>> toward harassment on Wikipedia. I got a Wikinotice about this month's > >>> Inspire Campaign, which specifically asks: "What ideas do you have that > >>> can > >>> help prevent and generally address cases of harassment?" [2] As a > victim > >>> of > >>> several of the harassing behaviors mentioned as examples - " name > >>> calling, > >>> threats, discrimination, stalking, and impersonation" - I was > encouraged > >>> to > >>> see that this problem was (hopefully) being taken seriously by the > >>> Foundation, and submitted a proposal. > >>> > >>> Looking at the other proposals submitted, I soon noticed that the most > >>> popular "ideas" on the list included complaints of "political > >>> correctness" > >>> and suggesting we shouldn't be so sensitive [3], and that we should > just > >>> get some sleep and exercise and reconsider why we're so offended. [4] > >>> (That > >>> first "idea" has since been recategorized by a WMF staffer to remove it > >>> from the current campaign.) > >>> > >>> It really bothers me that a campaign specifically designed to combat > >>> harassment - which is a very serious and real problem for people of > >>> marginalized identities like myself [5]- is being co-opted by people > >>> saying > >>> things like " Harassment doesn't cause actual damage," " The existence > of > >>> harassment is an opportunity to improve ourselves further through > >>> self-discipline," and " Harassment on Wikimedia has been exaggerated." > I > >>> suggest that people who honestly believe this, but are willing to > accept > >>> that they might be wrong, read a recent essay about online harassment > by > >>> Anil Dash: "The Immortal Myths About Online Abuse." [6] > >>> > >>> I'm not "looking to be offended," and I'm not trying to "censor" people > >>> who simply disagree with me. I'm trying to help build an encyclopedia, > >>> without being harassed by block-evading stalkers hurling hate speech my > >>> way. The existing tools and policies are *not* sufficient to deal with > >>> this. That's (what I thought was) the point of this Inspire campaign, > not > >>> complaining about censorship and " crybullying." > >>> > >>> I've posted a much shorter version of this concern on the Inspire > >>> Campaign > >>> talk page [7], so feel free to weigh in there instead of here on the > list > >>> if that's more appropriate. Thank you for reading. > >>> > >>> - Pax, aka Funcrunch > >>> > >>> > >>> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Funcrunch > >>> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Inspire > >>> [3] > >>> > >>> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Stop_%22Political_Correctness%22_as_gauge > >>> ! > >>> [4] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Don't_feed_the_trolls > >>> [5] Queer, trans, and black, in my case. > >>> [6] > >>> > >>> > https://medium.com/humane-tech/the-immortal-myths-about-online-abuse-a156e3370aee > >>> [7] > >>> > >>> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:IdeaLab/Inspire/Meta#Blaming_the_victim > >>> > >>> > > -- > > Pax Ahimsa Gethen | p...@funcrunch.org | http://funcrunch.org > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
