[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

Tue Jun 10 21:06:25 UTC 2008

Hoi,
The idea that all of us have to sit in judgement when someone is accused of
stalking is ridiculous. I doubt very much this is what helps to resolve
these type of situations.. peck and feathers are of a previous era. When we
think that such behaviour of our best and brightest can be left only to the
police, then you are not aware of the stories and the difficulties that
arise when you have to convince some cop that this is an actual problem.

We have bodies like the arbitration committees that with some regularity
handle such cases. When there is merit in going to the police, it is
typically the  appropriate thing to do. Stating that it is the individual
that is to do this, negates the added weight that a Wikimedia Foundation, an
Arbitration Committee has in convincing the police of the seriousness of
such situations. It is not hard to argue that failing to do this means that
victims of stalkers are left out to dry.
Thanks,
      GerardM

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 10:26 PM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> David Yellope wrote:
> > If there are individuals who are actually stalking someone, I'm all for
> > bringing the heavy end of the hammer down on them. A friend of mine, an
> > English Wikipedia Admin/Check User (who happens to post on WR herself!)
> was
> > stalked by a banned user on Wikipedia, and her stalker was subsequently
> > jailed for it (as a parole violation of a previous stalking conviction).
> > (I'd link you to her story on Wikipedia Review, but it's in a member only
> > section). So to say I support stalkers and harassers would be an untruth.
> >
> > But let's make sure we are dealing with the stalkers and the harassers
> and
> > them only, and not using too broad a brush here.
> That's the crux of the problem.  Most of us do not participate in these
> dramas so that by the time we get to hear of them there appears to be a
> presumption of guilt, and an absence of real evidence.
>
> If the stalking behaviour happened on wiki it would be more convincing
> to have specific links to the precise place where the threats were
> made.  Those that do such things can probably all do it in one or two
> sentences.  They don't require long-winded explanations trying to
> explain why those couple sentences constitute stalking.
>
> Off-wiki stalking is mostly beyond our control.  If you can't even link
> to the offensive comments what are the rest of us to make of it when you
> can't provide evidence.  My own appreciation of natural justice and
> fairness does not allow me to simply agree to the facts of an accusation
> just because someone has made the claim.
>
> If you believe that you have a real case of off-wiki stalking regular
> law-enforcement and the courts may be your only option.
>
> Ec
>
>
>
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