<img alt="" height="1" width="1">Violent threats on Wilson High's Wikipedia page went unchecked
Los Angeles Times, CA -51 minutes ago
The writer, who said he was a student, had been posting offensive messages for more than a year. An arrest has been made in response to the latest posts two ...
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Read this article, everyone. We have yet another reporter who just doesn't "get it".
I sent Ms. Molly Hennessy-Fiske the following communique:
Dear Ms. Hennessy-Fiske,
Throughout your article ( http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wi...9709,full.story ), you used the phrase "anonymous e-mail" and "unidentified e-mail", rather than "anonymous IP address".
Could you please clarify whether you do not understand the difference between an "e-mail" and an "IP address", or whether you just thought the readers of the LA Times would better understand the concept of an e-mail address rather than an IP address. E-mail addresses don't edit Wikipedia. If that were, in fact, the case, the situation with anonymous defamation and threats on Wikipedia would probably be a measure more manageable.
Kindly,
Gregory Kohs
I sent Ms. Molly Hennessy-Fiske the following communique:
QUOTE
Dear Ms. Hennessy-Fiske,
Throughout your article ( http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wi...9709,full.story ), you used the phrase "anonymous e-mail" and "unidentified e-mail", rather than "anonymous IP address".
Could you please clarify whether you do not understand the difference between an "e-mail" and an "IP address", or whether you just thought the readers of the LA Times would better understand the concept of an e-mail address rather than an IP address. E-mail addresses don't edit Wikipedia. If that were, in fact, the case, the situation with anonymous defamation and threats on Wikipedia would probably be a measure more manageable.
Kindly,
Gregory Kohs
QUOTE(From the article)
School district officials and sheriff's detectives did not start investigating the messages until two weeks ago, after Wikipedia staff alerted them to a violent threat posted April 16, the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting and a few days before the anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.
"On Friday, April 18, 2008, there will be a shooting at this school," the threat said, promising to target "a good majority of the badminton team and almost every single fob" -- a reference to recent Asian immigrants "fresh off the boat."
"Take this text down," the message warned, "and it will guarantee their death."
"On Friday, April 18, 2008, there will be a shooting at this school," the threat said, promising to target "a good majority of the badminton team and almost every single fob" -- a reference to recent Asian immigrants "fresh off the boat."
"Take this text down," the message warned, "and it will guarantee their death."
Note the perpetrator's adoption of an anankastic conditional.
In case I haven't said it lately, I disapprove of anankastic tactics.
I believe that anankastic tactics are exactly what the Wikimedia Foundation responds to best, but that will just be a point on which Moulton and I can politely disagree.
I would hope that Wikipedia Reviewers will discuss other important themes from this article. Namely:
The mind boggles at some of this stuff.
Greg
I would hope that Wikipedia Reviewers will discuss other important themes from this article. Namely:
- "love to see her shot right between the eyes with blood gushing out from her mouth" was a May 28, 2007 edit. The police were asked to help in April 2008.
- [School districts] mainly monitor school-related messages on Facebook and MySpace (but not Wikipedia?!?!)
- "The school's Wikipedia page is unofficial... Technically, it's beyond district control."
- "The district can ask companies or individuals to take down pages, but they rarely do..." (How can any decent reporter not mention Section 230 here?)
- "Some parents thought the school should have detected the threats earlier; others blamed Wikipedia for not reporting or taking them down sooner."
- Parent Cindy Greenup says, "Places like Wikipedia... have some responsibility... for public safety." (Try voicing that on WP:AN.)
- Professor Peter Lunenfeld concludes that parents need to be the ultimate online watchdogs. (Thank you, Jimbo, for adding another responsibility for public safety to parents' list -- fortunate for you that this responsibility doesn't fall on the Wikimedia Foundation's shoulders!)
- Wikimedia mouth Jay Walsh says they're "not hugely equipped to trace people and see what they're doing." (O RLY?! WordBomb and I beg to differ.)
The mind boggles at some of this stuff.
Greg
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 29th April 2008, 10:44am) 
I believe that anankastic tactics are exactly what the Wikimedia Foundation responds to best, but that will just be a point on which Moulton and I can politely disagree.
They can respond in a conciliatory manner, or they can respond by digging in their heels. My experience is that resistance to coercion is more common than submission to it.
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 29th April 2008, 10:05am)
QUOTE
Dear Ms. Hennessy-Fiske,
Throughout your article ( http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wi...9709,full.story ), you used the phrase "anonymous e-mail" and "unidentified e-mail", rather than "anonymous IP address".
Could you please clarify whether you do not understand the difference between an "e-mail" and an "IP address", or whether you just thought the readers of the LA Times would better understand the concept of an e-mail address rather than an IP address. E-mail addresses don't edit Wikipedia. If that were, in fact, the case, the situation with anonymous defamation and threats on Wikipedia would probably be a measure more manageable.
Kindly,
Gregory Kohs
Hennessy-Fiske's response:
You're right, it did come from an anonymous IP address, and I phrased it that way so that readers would get the point that the messages could not be immediately identified/traced.
Oh. My. God.
After we bring sweeping reform and/or destruction to Wikipedia, who is on board for a new message forum called Journalism Review?
++++++++++++++++++++
QUOTE(Moulton @ Tue 29th April 2008, 10:57am)
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 29th April 2008, 10:44am)
I believe that anankastic tactics are exactly what the Wikimedia Foundation responds to best, but that will just be a point on which Moulton and I can politely disagree.
They can respond in a conciliatory manner, or they can respond by digging in their heels. My experience is that resistance to coercion is more common than submission to it.
See the Spanking Art controversy on Wikia, Moulton. Anankastic tactics got an entire Wikia site mothballed in just a few days. The boys at Wikia, Inc. even put in overtime on a weekend to "conciliate" that one.
Stay tuned. We have another anankastic volcano that's going to erupt in June.
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 29th April 2008, 11:00am)
After we bring sweeping reform and/or destruction to Wikipedia, who is on board for a new message forum called Journalism Review?
See the Media Ethics Blog.
QUOTE
Anankastic tactics got an entire Wikia site mothballed in just a few days. The boys at Wikia, Inc. even put in overtime on a weekend to "conciliate" that one.
They initially dug in their heels, then decided it wasn't worth the fight.
But I'm not convinced that it was coercion so much as embarrassment in that case.
QUOTE
Stay tuned. We have another anankastic volcano that's going to erupt in June.
Can we have a preview of what's coming soon to the drama screen?
QUOTE(thekohser @ Tue 29th April 2008, 11:00am)
Hennessy-Fiske's response:
You're right, it did come from an anonymous IP address, and I phrased it that way so that readers would get the point that the messages could not be immediately identified/traced.
You're right, it did come from an anonymous IP address, and I phrased it that way so that readers would get the point that the messages could not be immediately identified/traced.
This is what Kim Bruning calls a lie-to-children — an expression that describes a form of simplification of material for consumption by children.
Note...
The WikiEN-l mailing list is finally waking up to this story:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikie...ril/093368.html
Of course, they'll make no mention of Wikipedia Review as having already scooped this yesterday:
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=17748
Greg
The WikiEN-l mailing list is finally waking up to this story:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikie...ril/093368.html
Of course, they'll make no mention of Wikipedia Review as having already scooped this yesterday:
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=17748
Greg
The WR news scraper picked this story up yesterday morning.
Tony Sidaway posted the same story alert to the WP mailing list last night.
I'm less concerned about the 10 hour scoop advantage and more concerned about the need to understand the underlying socio-cultural dynamics of these Columbine-like occurrences.
[Greg, click here for the Google cache of that link.]
Tony Sidaway posted the same story alert to the WP mailing list last night.
I'm less concerned about the 10 hour scoop advantage and more concerned about the need to understand the underlying socio-cultural dynamics of these Columbine-like occurrences.
[Greg, click here for the Google cache of that link.]
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