Wikimedia Ethics/Case Studies/Case 1

Case Studies

 * See also: Illustrative Examples

After each of the cases presented below, there follows some questions around the critical issues. You are free to write up answers to such questions, or ask questions of your own on |the discussion page of this section. We have, in some places, identified the primary author(s) of the various case studies, but please feel free to suggest improvements to the writing; don't be offended should an author revert you. All participants are free to create new sections within this page, or to work in a slightly different paradigm at this page.

Further reading
 * Wikipedia Review (Forum that attempts to document problems in Wikipedia. Has been described as perpetuating bad behaviors of banned users by many users of Wikipedia. )
 * w:Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents (Wikipedia's adminstrative notification board)
 * w:Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Moulton (Unfinished discussion regarding Moulton's (a primary contributor to this project) block/unblock)
 * w:Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee (A request for community input on the Arbitration Comittee, the judicial body of Wikipedia)
 * w:Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/C68-FM-SV/Evidence (One particularly complex case involving numerous interlocking disputes)

Managing personal information
Issues of pseudo anonymity, 'outing', respect for fellow editors, and the need to maintain a collegial atmosphere free from bullying and harassment are relevant to the ethical management of Wikipedia. This section is for case studies related to these issues.

Principles Involved

 * Do no harm
 * Ability of anyone to edit articles without registering (a foundation issue)
 * "You can edit this page right now". "We must respect this principle as sacred".

Rules (Policies, Guidelines etc.)
There is a known conflict between the values of privacy and neutral point of view when there is a concealed conflict of interest or sock-puppetry.


 * Posting of personal information
 * Privacy policy (note also its evolution)
 * Conflict of interest
 * Neutral point of view
 * Sock puppetry

Case 1 — An example of problematic behaviour and response
This example is allegorical, and may represent common ground 

User:Foo posted a message to User:Bar's talk page stating "Hello Bar, I know that your name is George Bigginsworth, and that you live at 12 Acacia Lane, stop editing Wikipedia or I'll take this further".

User:Foo is immediately indefinitely blocked, and the edit he made is removed permanently from the database, so as to be invisible to all editors and administrators except the very few with the 'oversight' privilege.
 * Question: Is that it? Is there anything else we should do?

Case 2 — Information Publicly released in some way
There are several clear examples - further advice is required about how to manage such details

Some wiki editors have released information publicly, sometimes accidentally, sometimes openly, though in different contexts, sometimes very recently, and sometimes many years ago. In due course we may examine here the specific details of some cases.