[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

Sat Jun 14 15:42:59 UTC 2008

--- On Sat, 6/14/08, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:

> From: Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Stalking Article
> To: "Birgitte SB" <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com>, "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008, 6:48 AM
> >> > The main good reason to edit anonynously is
> because
> >> Wikipedia is an open wiki and is incapable of
> >> > preventing harrasment or any less seious sort
> of
> >> contact.
> >>
> >> That seems to me more like a reason not to edit at
> all.
> >
> > I don't see why.
> >
> Well, mainly because the popular Wikipedias don't have
> any remotely
> reasonable mechanism to allow anonymous edits.  Tor is
> banned from
> en.Wikipedia, so in order to edit anonymously you have to
> create a new
> account for each edit, and where's the fun in that? 
> Maybe Tor is
> allowed on the Wikipedia you edit?  I realize this is
> foundation-l, so
> I'm trying not to assume too much about which project
> you're referring
> to.
> 
> I guess I should clarify that I don't think the fact
> that Wikipedia
> cannot prevent harassment is enough of a reason to not edit
> at all
> *for everyone*; only for those who find themselves unable
> to edit
> without hiding themselves from the other editors.  And
> I'm not really
> sure if you fall into that or not.  You say you "have
> no problem
> owning up to my pseudononymous edits", so 1) it sounds
> like you are
> willing to reveal your identity to other editors; and 2)
> you're not
> editing *anonymously* in any case, you're editing
> *pseudonymously*.
> 
> This goes back to one of my earlier statements, which is
> that
> pseudonymity is incredibly difficult to maintain.  All it
> takes is one
> motivated person to decide to reveal your identity, and
> suddenly your
> pseudonymity is broadcast on so called "attack
> sites".  And there
> doesn't seem to be any way to eliminate the possibility
> that someone
> is going to be motivated like this.  So what do you do,
> scrutinize
> every edit to make sure that you're not revealing
> anything about
> yourself?  Never use IRC or skype or Yahoo email, lest you
> reveal your
> IP address?  Use Tor for every edit in case you
> accidentally get
> logged out or follow a link to an unfriendly outing site? 
> Where's the
> fun in that?  What's the purpose?  To make sure some
> African kid is
> well educated when he starves to death?
> 
> I hope you don't mind that I'm putting this back on
> the list.  I don't
> think you've said anything confidential so I think this
> is OK.
> 

Perfectly OK.  I was actually beginning to draft a message and changed my mind but accidentally hit send instead of delete. My email program tends to automatically set up the email to the person I am replying to and I have to change the address to the list manually.

But you misunderstand my goal.  It is not to remain anonymous or to never be connected to my edits.  It is simply to make it more difficult to be contacted by someone who knows my name.  I have actually revealed my identity as I attended a Wikimania.  If you wanted to discover my identity you probably could and that doesn't worry me.  I simply don't wish googling my name to bring someone to a website I am active on the first page.  

You say pseudononminity is difficult to maintain.  This is true, but it does not mean that it offers no benefit.  If I am harassed I will quit editing.  But there is no reason to not edit because I might be harassed.  Or to make it very easy for someone looking for Jane Doe to find me on wiki by using Jane Doe as my account name.  As I said before I can be distressed by this person but they are not going to show up at my door and hurt me.  And frankly they will get my address quicker my telling another relative they wanted to send a card than by tracing my IP.  They know where I work and have called me there and sent letters there. They don't bother me too often because I am probably only occasionally on their mind and I have done well with not responding to them in any way that might encourage more contact.  I tend to think if they were able to easily keep track of what I am doing online it would provoke them into making contact more often and give them
 a better chance of saying something where I would lose my cool and react.  This is not about perfectly protecting myself but about simply making me less vulnerable to this person.  Pseudononmity does make me less vulnerable because however little it does to prevent someone who wants to get the person behind BrigitteSB the person who wants to get to Jane Doe really doesn't have an angle.  

Birgitte SB