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This page has archives. Sections older than 60 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
Legal name refers to the name that is used to identify a person for legal and administrative purposes. Usually, this is also the name a person is commonly known ("real name" or "personal name"), however some people are commonly known by a name that is different from their legal name (see the Personal name article).
Personal information is anything that can be used to identify a specific person. This can include a person's name, date of birth, e-mail address, phone number, physical address (however it could be shared by multiple people), identification numbers, credit card numbers and more. In some cases it even includes usernames or user account identification numbers (e.g. user_id in a database).
The Wikipedia:Harassment article contains the term "legal name" which could be replaced with "real name", "personal name" or just "name". I've replaced "legal name" with "real name" in the article mentioned above, then someone reverted my edit telling me that a consensus in the talk page is needed. WPEditor42 ( talk) 13:58, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
It could also be replaced with "full name". WPEditor42 ( talk) 14:19, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
"Real name" includes both preferred names (not nicknames or pseudonyms) and legal names. Both are considered personal information if you can accurately identify a person using it. WPEditor42 ( talk) 16:19, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
Regarding this edit: the shortcut redirect WP:STALKING was removed earlier from the list of available shortcuts as the term has certain real-life connotations, as described at Wikipedia:Harassment § What harassment is not, and discussed at Wikipedia talk:Harassment/Archive 1 § Wikihounding. I feel the shortcut shouldn't be listed. Four listed shortcuts is more than enough (general guidance is to list no more than two), and I agree with not promoting usage of this redirect. (Both WP:STALK and WP:STALKING used to be soft redirects with a note discouraging their use, but the note was removed by one editor in 2022 and WP:STALKING was made into a hard redirect.) isaacl ( talk) 17:54, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
As always, let me start by saying that if there is any material fact in what follows that I have overlooked, kindly point it out. With that said:
Most editors here are probably aware of the ongoing World War II ArbCom case. The essay that sparked this case mentions a Wikipedian's name and workplace, with a footnote citing a 2009 diff where the editor – apparently in some frustration at having been doxed off-site – signed with their real name and then added that anyone wanting more personal information could find it on Encylopedia Dramatica. Note that this was in plain text. The post contained no link to Dramatica. (I also understand that the editor at some point later on tried to have the diff oversighted but was refused.)
I mention the absence of a link because the wording of WP:OUTING specifically requires one:
Posting another editor's personal information is harassment, unless that person has voluntarily posted their own information, or links to such information, on Wikipedia.
This aspect of the policy has been stable since at least 2008.
ArbCom appears to have taken the view that despite the absence of such a link to his workplace information, the contributor's 2009 statement still entitles everyone today and for the indefinite future to freely share the contributor's name and current workplace information (which is different from what it was then, nearly fifteen years ago) on- and off-wiki.
Now, it seems to me that posting a link to personal information is qualitatively different from exclaiming in frustration "I have been doxed on [name of site]." Posting a link signifies a different kind of intent than merely mentioning a doxing site.
In my view ArbCom should reconsider, but I'd be interested in other editors' views. But if consensus is against me, and it is the community's wish that the mere mention of a doxing site should suffice to make all information held on that site today and at any point in the future "fair game" and exempt from the WP:OUTING policy, then there is an easy test. It's to ask ourselves whether there is consensus to edit the sentence quoted above as follows:
Posting another editor's personal information is harassment, unless that person has voluntarily posted their own information, or indicated where such information can be found, on Wikipedia.
Does that wording better reflect the will, consensus and understanding of the community? Andreas JN 466 13:07, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
Many editors, especially newer or younger editors, aren't really aware of the potential impact of publishing their personal information on their user page or elsewhere on the project. It's one of the reasons that oversighters like myself will suppress information such as schools, names of minor children or siblings, telephone numbers, addresses, or similarly identifying personal information, without thinking twice. We'll usually follow up with a message to the user explaining why that information has been removed. If an apparently adult user puts their own personal information back on their userpage, we'll probably consider that they have been made aware of the risks of such and are consciously deciding to publish it. As any experienced Wikipedian knows, there are many reusers of Wikipedia content, some of which includes user pages; and of course, there are regularly produced "dumps" of the entire project that are available to anyone. Once that information has been on a page for a certain length of time, it has to be considered "available on the internet somewhere" even if it subsequently gets deleted or suppressed.
I'm having a hard time believing that a snarky comment from 2009 is being used to justify doxxing an editor, back in the ancient times when such editor complaints ("ED has doxxed me!") were commonplace, and there were no mechanisms for editors without the right connections to get such information removed. I understand why you have written what you have written, but I think you are probably wrong that the community thinks that's enough to allow doxxing and harassment of editors. Risker ( talk) 22:04, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
I would be extremely resistant to rewriting the OUTING policy basedbit.My understanding of Tryptofish's and Jayen466's arguments on this page is that they think ArbCom misinterpreted the existing policy and/or applied it in a manner that is outside the historical norm (something I haven't looked closely enough at to have an opinion on.) If that's actually what they are arguing, and I'm not misreading this, any update to the policy wouldn't be a substantive change but probably a minor clarification consisting of less than a sentence. You might disagree with that characterization, and it seems you do, but it isn't outside the realm of reasonable discussion to have a this discussion if there's significant disagreement with the committee's point of view. You'd need an RfC for it, but it wouldn't be nearly anything as drastic as a complete re-write and this page would be the appropriate page start that RfC. The community can absolutely overrule ArbCom's interpretation of any policy by clarifying the policy.To use a legal analogy since I know you sometimes like thinking that way — its fairly common in the English-speaking world for legislatures to overrule courts by changing the specific wording of statutory law when they disagree with an interpretation a court has taken. Those usually aren't radical departures from how the law as originally written was enforced, and are more or less rebuffs of judicial interpretation — the court that ruled that way might disagree with that characterization, but the legislature obviously doesn't when it does this. Wikipedia obviously isn't a court and the community isn't a legislature, but the principle applies here as well.All that being said, if people actually want to do it, they should absolutely wait until after the case is done, and drop the discussion for now. TonyBallioni ( talk) 05:46, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
A little ways back, Joe Roe pointed out how in abstract it was possible for a genuine contradiction between OUTING and NPOV to arise when an RS publishes the personal information of a contributor. I agree with the wisdom of delaying further discussion until passions have cooled and a more detached discussion is possible. But eventually that will need to be resolved. 74.73.224.126 ( talk) 23:17, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
If you attempt a clean start but are recognized, you will be held accountable for your actions under both the old and new accounts. The fact that you notified someone of the change will not excuse you from the consequences of your actions or protect you from recognition.My reading of that has always been that any editor is free to make the connection between the two accounts. I have a vague memory of us suppressing such links in cases of extreme harassment (don't remember specifics), but generally speaking such a link would not be oversighted. Ancient history at this point but claiming that linking clean starts was outing was basically the MO of User:Zawl before he ended up community banned. I think we'd probably discuss any such situation on the list before suppressing, and I for one would argue fairly strongly against such a suppression outside of cases of off-site harassment.To tgeorgescu's question which relates more closely to account renames: referring to someone by a past username might be rude, but is not against the outing policy and the Oversight team has documented our stance on it on the OSPOL page since it was at one point a very frequent request. TonyBallioni ( talk) 05:48, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
Should we resume the discussion that was prompted by the recent ArbCom proceedings now the case is over? My feeling was ArbCom basically made a political rather than policy-based decision not to consider the scholarly paper outing. Committee members gave different reasons at different times to justify this view – first it was the editor's on-wiki mention (but not linking) of Dramatica over a decade ago, then a contention that the UCoC would not apply to academic papers, and then a contention that the UCoC examples of unacceptable harassment behaviour should not be taken literally, but subjected to a further test. The white paper requested may help to clarify the WMF view at least, though I would not expect results to be forthcoming any time soon. Thoughts? Andreas JN 466 06:16, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
smart enough to tell the difference between legitimate and illegitimate academic writingsThat's the most problematic part, because it quite plainly jeopardises the principle of equality before the law.
Grabowski and Klein felt they needed to name editors because they were authors of content that was untrue and potentially harmful and they don’t have the confidence of Wikipedia’s ability to obtain redress when its highest body (ArbCom) only enforces conduct rather than truth.Isn't that "naming and shaming" exactly the same justification other editors gave when they outed people (and got banned for it)? Andreas JN 466 08:19, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
Andreas, I find it a bit rich that you agree the UCOC is a curate's egg when you spent a great deal of energy at the case to try to get us to enforce the UCOC (or at least your interpretation of it). CaptainEek Edits Ho Cap'n! ⚓ 15:21, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
may not be circumvented, eroded, or ignored by Wikimedia Foundation officers or staff nor local policies of any Wikimedia project, but on the other hand we think it is too crappy to enforce it. (I did suggest committee members unwilling to enforce the Code would have the honorable option to resign.)
considered unacceptable within the Wikimedia movement. It goes on to say (my emphases) that harassment
includes but is not limited to: Insults [...] Sexual harassment [...] Threats [...] Encouraging harm to others [...] Disclosure of personal data (Doxing): sharing other contributors' private information, such as name, place of employment, physical or email address without their explicit consent either on the Wikimedia projects or elsewhere, or sharing information concerning their Wikimedia activity outside the projects. [...]
includes any behaviour intended primarily to intimidate, outrage or upset a person [and] may include contacting workplaces or friends and family members in an effort to intimidate or embarrass.ArbCom took the view that this is not what happened here. I think reasonable people can disagree. Andreas JN 466 19:14, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
There was a greater alignment in purpose during the initial years (though as I understand it by no means across all issues), and it's been a long time since policy could be significantly changed by a single individual to take effect immediately, which is the wiki way (allow anyone to change a living document). The limits were hit early on, and considerable discussion is required for meaningful changes. Wikipedia's policies and processes have grown more entrenched as a small number of objectors can stalemate progress. And most changes that do gain approval are still met with subsequent outcries of editors who felt they weren't sufficiently consulted. isaacl ( talk) 16:43, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
As the person who first made the curate's egg analogy in this section, I'd like to respond to the criticism of those of us who think that the good parts of the UCOC should be taken seriously by the community. When a flawed document has some good features it is not hypocritical to call for the good parts to be enforced whilst still pointing out that other bits are flawed. What would be off would be to call for the whole of it to be treated as literally, whilst still pointing out that the first admin to get dementia but insist on the UCOC protecting them, or the reforms of the Scots Wiki should be undone because they gave preference to Scots Wiki contributors who actually understood Scots. In the case of Arbcom, I'm not aware of anyone, not even the WMF, who argues that the UCOC should be taken so literally that Arbcom should stop requiring its members to be at least 18 years old..... So we know that Arbcom and the WMF both have a defacto position of only enforcing the bits of the UCOC that they think are worth enforcing.
As for whether the size of the community is growing or stable, we need to remember that the currently active part of the community is only a subset of the community of everyone who has ever contributed to this project. By at least one measure the currently active part of the community is still larger than it was in the late 2014 minima. By every measure the community of people who have ever contributed to this project is still growing as it has continually since 2001. The longer this project continues for the more people will be out there relying on the currently active community to protect what they voluntarily did on this project. Even if there is no one currently active who they have interacted with, and the rules, norms and technology of doxxing have radically changed since they made their contributions to this project. Ϣere SpielChequers 07:57, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
Further information: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard#Postscript to World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 19:41, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
Just spitballing another thought that I had, another issue that came up in the ArbCom case was that an editor had some self-outing material that he later wanted to have oversighted/suppressed, but was turned down because the information had been posted for a long time, and the oversighters concluded that too much time had passed in order for it to be oversighted now. That personal information ended up being significant in the recent dispute. I can't fault the oversighters for following the existing policy. But the community might want to start taking a look at updating our policies for that, as a guide to oversighters in the future. We might want to do something roughly along the lines of saying that protecting the privacy of personal information should be prioritized above how much time has passed since the original edit, so that the personal information would not continue to remain readily visible where it could be used in a harassing manner. At the same time, we might also spell out that someone aware of the personal information from the more lengthy time interval between posting and oversight might not necessarily be sanctioned for outing simply because the well-known material was eventually oversighted. Or something like that. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 19:06, 9 June 2023 (UTC)
If somebody brags on social media in unsavory terms about having made a certain edit on Wikipedia, can I call them out on it on-Wiki? Is that outing?
And if somebody claims on social media to have ‘worked with Wikipedia moderators’ to make those edits? Hyperbolick ( talk) 04:31, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
The project page associated with this talk page is an official policy on Wikipedia. Policies have wide acceptance among editors and are considered a standard for all users to follow. Please review policy editing recommendations before making any substantive change to this page. Always remember to keep cool when editing, and don't panic. |
This page is only for discussion of the policy and not for reporting cases of harassment; if you require information on dealing with harassment click here. Thank you for your time. |
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10 |
This page has archives. Sections older than 60 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
Legal name refers to the name that is used to identify a person for legal and administrative purposes. Usually, this is also the name a person is commonly known ("real name" or "personal name"), however some people are commonly known by a name that is different from their legal name (see the Personal name article).
Personal information is anything that can be used to identify a specific person. This can include a person's name, date of birth, e-mail address, phone number, physical address (however it could be shared by multiple people), identification numbers, credit card numbers and more. In some cases it even includes usernames or user account identification numbers (e.g. user_id in a database).
The Wikipedia:Harassment article contains the term "legal name" which could be replaced with "real name", "personal name" or just "name". I've replaced "legal name" with "real name" in the article mentioned above, then someone reverted my edit telling me that a consensus in the talk page is needed. WPEditor42 ( talk) 13:58, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
It could also be replaced with "full name". WPEditor42 ( talk) 14:19, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
"Real name" includes both preferred names (not nicknames or pseudonyms) and legal names. Both are considered personal information if you can accurately identify a person using it. WPEditor42 ( talk) 16:19, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
Regarding this edit: the shortcut redirect WP:STALKING was removed earlier from the list of available shortcuts as the term has certain real-life connotations, as described at Wikipedia:Harassment § What harassment is not, and discussed at Wikipedia talk:Harassment/Archive 1 § Wikihounding. I feel the shortcut shouldn't be listed. Four listed shortcuts is more than enough (general guidance is to list no more than two), and I agree with not promoting usage of this redirect. (Both WP:STALK and WP:STALKING used to be soft redirects with a note discouraging their use, but the note was removed by one editor in 2022 and WP:STALKING was made into a hard redirect.) isaacl ( talk) 17:54, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
As always, let me start by saying that if there is any material fact in what follows that I have overlooked, kindly point it out. With that said:
Most editors here are probably aware of the ongoing World War II ArbCom case. The essay that sparked this case mentions a Wikipedian's name and workplace, with a footnote citing a 2009 diff where the editor – apparently in some frustration at having been doxed off-site – signed with their real name and then added that anyone wanting more personal information could find it on Encylopedia Dramatica. Note that this was in plain text. The post contained no link to Dramatica. (I also understand that the editor at some point later on tried to have the diff oversighted but was refused.)
I mention the absence of a link because the wording of WP:OUTING specifically requires one:
Posting another editor's personal information is harassment, unless that person has voluntarily posted their own information, or links to such information, on Wikipedia.
This aspect of the policy has been stable since at least 2008.
ArbCom appears to have taken the view that despite the absence of such a link to his workplace information, the contributor's 2009 statement still entitles everyone today and for the indefinite future to freely share the contributor's name and current workplace information (which is different from what it was then, nearly fifteen years ago) on- and off-wiki.
Now, it seems to me that posting a link to personal information is qualitatively different from exclaiming in frustration "I have been doxed on [name of site]." Posting a link signifies a different kind of intent than merely mentioning a doxing site.
In my view ArbCom should reconsider, but I'd be interested in other editors' views. But if consensus is against me, and it is the community's wish that the mere mention of a doxing site should suffice to make all information held on that site today and at any point in the future "fair game" and exempt from the WP:OUTING policy, then there is an easy test. It's to ask ourselves whether there is consensus to edit the sentence quoted above as follows:
Posting another editor's personal information is harassment, unless that person has voluntarily posted their own information, or indicated where such information can be found, on Wikipedia.
Does that wording better reflect the will, consensus and understanding of the community? Andreas JN 466 13:07, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
Many editors, especially newer or younger editors, aren't really aware of the potential impact of publishing their personal information on their user page or elsewhere on the project. It's one of the reasons that oversighters like myself will suppress information such as schools, names of minor children or siblings, telephone numbers, addresses, or similarly identifying personal information, without thinking twice. We'll usually follow up with a message to the user explaining why that information has been removed. If an apparently adult user puts their own personal information back on their userpage, we'll probably consider that they have been made aware of the risks of such and are consciously deciding to publish it. As any experienced Wikipedian knows, there are many reusers of Wikipedia content, some of which includes user pages; and of course, there are regularly produced "dumps" of the entire project that are available to anyone. Once that information has been on a page for a certain length of time, it has to be considered "available on the internet somewhere" even if it subsequently gets deleted or suppressed.
I'm having a hard time believing that a snarky comment from 2009 is being used to justify doxxing an editor, back in the ancient times when such editor complaints ("ED has doxxed me!") were commonplace, and there were no mechanisms for editors without the right connections to get such information removed. I understand why you have written what you have written, but I think you are probably wrong that the community thinks that's enough to allow doxxing and harassment of editors. Risker ( talk) 22:04, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
I would be extremely resistant to rewriting the OUTING policy basedbit.My understanding of Tryptofish's and Jayen466's arguments on this page is that they think ArbCom misinterpreted the existing policy and/or applied it in a manner that is outside the historical norm (something I haven't looked closely enough at to have an opinion on.) If that's actually what they are arguing, and I'm not misreading this, any update to the policy wouldn't be a substantive change but probably a minor clarification consisting of less than a sentence. You might disagree with that characterization, and it seems you do, but it isn't outside the realm of reasonable discussion to have a this discussion if there's significant disagreement with the committee's point of view. You'd need an RfC for it, but it wouldn't be nearly anything as drastic as a complete re-write and this page would be the appropriate page start that RfC. The community can absolutely overrule ArbCom's interpretation of any policy by clarifying the policy.To use a legal analogy since I know you sometimes like thinking that way — its fairly common in the English-speaking world for legislatures to overrule courts by changing the specific wording of statutory law when they disagree with an interpretation a court has taken. Those usually aren't radical departures from how the law as originally written was enforced, and are more or less rebuffs of judicial interpretation — the court that ruled that way might disagree with that characterization, but the legislature obviously doesn't when it does this. Wikipedia obviously isn't a court and the community isn't a legislature, but the principle applies here as well.All that being said, if people actually want to do it, they should absolutely wait until after the case is done, and drop the discussion for now. TonyBallioni ( talk) 05:46, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
A little ways back, Joe Roe pointed out how in abstract it was possible for a genuine contradiction between OUTING and NPOV to arise when an RS publishes the personal information of a contributor. I agree with the wisdom of delaying further discussion until passions have cooled and a more detached discussion is possible. But eventually that will need to be resolved. 74.73.224.126 ( talk) 23:17, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
If you attempt a clean start but are recognized, you will be held accountable for your actions under both the old and new accounts. The fact that you notified someone of the change will not excuse you from the consequences of your actions or protect you from recognition.My reading of that has always been that any editor is free to make the connection between the two accounts. I have a vague memory of us suppressing such links in cases of extreme harassment (don't remember specifics), but generally speaking such a link would not be oversighted. Ancient history at this point but claiming that linking clean starts was outing was basically the MO of User:Zawl before he ended up community banned. I think we'd probably discuss any such situation on the list before suppressing, and I for one would argue fairly strongly against such a suppression outside of cases of off-site harassment.To tgeorgescu's question which relates more closely to account renames: referring to someone by a past username might be rude, but is not against the outing policy and the Oversight team has documented our stance on it on the OSPOL page since it was at one point a very frequent request. TonyBallioni ( talk) 05:48, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
Should we resume the discussion that was prompted by the recent ArbCom proceedings now the case is over? My feeling was ArbCom basically made a political rather than policy-based decision not to consider the scholarly paper outing. Committee members gave different reasons at different times to justify this view – first it was the editor's on-wiki mention (but not linking) of Dramatica over a decade ago, then a contention that the UCoC would not apply to academic papers, and then a contention that the UCoC examples of unacceptable harassment behaviour should not be taken literally, but subjected to a further test. The white paper requested may help to clarify the WMF view at least, though I would not expect results to be forthcoming any time soon. Thoughts? Andreas JN 466 06:16, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
smart enough to tell the difference between legitimate and illegitimate academic writingsThat's the most problematic part, because it quite plainly jeopardises the principle of equality before the law.
Grabowski and Klein felt they needed to name editors because they were authors of content that was untrue and potentially harmful and they don’t have the confidence of Wikipedia’s ability to obtain redress when its highest body (ArbCom) only enforces conduct rather than truth.Isn't that "naming and shaming" exactly the same justification other editors gave when they outed people (and got banned for it)? Andreas JN 466 08:19, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
Andreas, I find it a bit rich that you agree the UCOC is a curate's egg when you spent a great deal of energy at the case to try to get us to enforce the UCOC (or at least your interpretation of it). CaptainEek Edits Ho Cap'n! ⚓ 15:21, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
may not be circumvented, eroded, or ignored by Wikimedia Foundation officers or staff nor local policies of any Wikimedia project, but on the other hand we think it is too crappy to enforce it. (I did suggest committee members unwilling to enforce the Code would have the honorable option to resign.)
considered unacceptable within the Wikimedia movement. It goes on to say (my emphases) that harassment
includes but is not limited to: Insults [...] Sexual harassment [...] Threats [...] Encouraging harm to others [...] Disclosure of personal data (Doxing): sharing other contributors' private information, such as name, place of employment, physical or email address without their explicit consent either on the Wikimedia projects or elsewhere, or sharing information concerning their Wikimedia activity outside the projects. [...]
includes any behaviour intended primarily to intimidate, outrage or upset a person [and] may include contacting workplaces or friends and family members in an effort to intimidate or embarrass.ArbCom took the view that this is not what happened here. I think reasonable people can disagree. Andreas JN 466 19:14, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
There was a greater alignment in purpose during the initial years (though as I understand it by no means across all issues), and it's been a long time since policy could be significantly changed by a single individual to take effect immediately, which is the wiki way (allow anyone to change a living document). The limits were hit early on, and considerable discussion is required for meaningful changes. Wikipedia's policies and processes have grown more entrenched as a small number of objectors can stalemate progress. And most changes that do gain approval are still met with subsequent outcries of editors who felt they weren't sufficiently consulted. isaacl ( talk) 16:43, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
As the person who first made the curate's egg analogy in this section, I'd like to respond to the criticism of those of us who think that the good parts of the UCOC should be taken seriously by the community. When a flawed document has some good features it is not hypocritical to call for the good parts to be enforced whilst still pointing out that other bits are flawed. What would be off would be to call for the whole of it to be treated as literally, whilst still pointing out that the first admin to get dementia but insist on the UCOC protecting them, or the reforms of the Scots Wiki should be undone because they gave preference to Scots Wiki contributors who actually understood Scots. In the case of Arbcom, I'm not aware of anyone, not even the WMF, who argues that the UCOC should be taken so literally that Arbcom should stop requiring its members to be at least 18 years old..... So we know that Arbcom and the WMF both have a defacto position of only enforcing the bits of the UCOC that they think are worth enforcing.
As for whether the size of the community is growing or stable, we need to remember that the currently active part of the community is only a subset of the community of everyone who has ever contributed to this project. By at least one measure the currently active part of the community is still larger than it was in the late 2014 minima. By every measure the community of people who have ever contributed to this project is still growing as it has continually since 2001. The longer this project continues for the more people will be out there relying on the currently active community to protect what they voluntarily did on this project. Even if there is no one currently active who they have interacted with, and the rules, norms and technology of doxxing have radically changed since they made their contributions to this project. Ϣere SpielChequers 07:57, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
Further information: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard#Postscript to World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 19:41, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
Just spitballing another thought that I had, another issue that came up in the ArbCom case was that an editor had some self-outing material that he later wanted to have oversighted/suppressed, but was turned down because the information had been posted for a long time, and the oversighters concluded that too much time had passed in order for it to be oversighted now. That personal information ended up being significant in the recent dispute. I can't fault the oversighters for following the existing policy. But the community might want to start taking a look at updating our policies for that, as a guide to oversighters in the future. We might want to do something roughly along the lines of saying that protecting the privacy of personal information should be prioritized above how much time has passed since the original edit, so that the personal information would not continue to remain readily visible where it could be used in a harassing manner. At the same time, we might also spell out that someone aware of the personal information from the more lengthy time interval between posting and oversight might not necessarily be sanctioned for outing simply because the well-known material was eventually oversighted. Or something like that. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 19:06, 9 June 2023 (UTC)
If somebody brags on social media in unsavory terms about having made a certain edit on Wikipedia, can I call them out on it on-Wiki? Is that outing?
And if somebody claims on social media to have ‘worked with Wikipedia moderators’ to make those edits? Hyperbolick ( talk) 04:31, 8 February 2024 (UTC)