I largely agree with Sarah. After several years taking a break from using the Checkuser tool, in early January I decided to actively join the the team again. So, I read all the active ArbCom cases to familarize myself with the current controversies on Wikipedia. During my reading of the GamerGate controversy evidence, workshop, and proposed decison I never saw this case as people who were feminists or strong advocates for eliminating systemic bias in Wikipedia. So, I was shocked to see it being reported that ArbCom was purging feminists!
This is not the first dispute that has been imported into Wikipedia English, but it is one of the biggest and worst. Right now the people who have reported on GamerGate in the media for months are reporting on the ArbCom case. Some of these people have pretty entrenched points of view. This is true of both sides. The issue of off site harassment that is happening to Wikipedia editors. is something that need to be addressed in a broader way and not put on ArbCom to fix because that is beyond their ability to investigate and resolve. If you are being harassed take Sarah's advice and take a break and find something off or on wiki to do that feeds your soul.. Life is too short to let Wikipedia ruin your life. There are some reasonable people who are working to keep violations of BLP out of the articles and off the talk pages and stop the constant fighting. These people are not getting sanctioned. I truly appreciate the work that they are doing in the face of the harassment and negative publicity in the media. Sydney Sydney Poore User:FloNight Wikipedian in Residence at Cochrane Collaboration On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 1:03 PM, Sarah Stierch <[email protected]> wrote: > I am now on digest mode with this mailing list. The traffic is often too > much for me and the voice of this list is frustrating for me > sometimes..so... remember that please :) > --- > > I have been asked to share my thoughts by many people this morning on the > internet, here they are: > > I have been editing Wikipedia for ten years and i have no clue what has > been going on with the feminist/gamergate thing. As one of the more well > known female editors i have cut back heavily on my involvement after last > year. I don't know any of the editors, personally, who "went to court" but > I have seen this stuff happen to both sides in men's rights articles in the > past. > > After reviewing the Arbcom case, I don't even know who got the idea that > any of the contributing editors are feminist, per se. No one even mentions > the word, except once, when describing a subject that was "slandered" in > the gamer gate article(s). > > I also don't think that the edits made to the article are overwhelmingly > feminist in nature. It appears to be just a bunch of people editing the > Wikipedia article to protect it from being a hot mess of 4chan junk. > > Note: most of the "in trouble" editor's aren't that productive at > contributing feminist content to Wikipedia. I have interacted with only > four of them - Black Kite, Future Perfect at Sunrise, TarainDC and Bilby - > only one is a female in real life and I know her from GLAM editing > projects. She is the only one that I know who has actively edited feminist > topics prior to this. I actually consider Bilby an ally, but, I have never > heard him or any of the other editors blatantly identify themselves as > feminists. > > From what I know, only one of the editors on the entire "trial list" > identifies out as a female. > > So, it appears a bunch of editors trying to keep the article clean had to > run through the gauntlet. I don't think the end of the world has come to > any of their lives - they have plenty of other subjects of interest to keep > them busy on Wikipedia. > > I also think people invest *too much* into Wikipedia to where it's what > they live for..per se. I see a lot of that in this case, and many others > that "go to court" on Wikipedia. I stopped participating on Wikipedia when > it screwed up my personal life so much, and I lost sleep over it. So... > that's my advice to anyone involved in that Arbcom case :) Go on vacation > and get another hobby and edit Wikipedia when you feel like it. It isn't > life. It's just an encyclopedia. > > Sarah > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > [email protected] > To manage your subscription preferences, including unsubscribing, please > visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap >
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