Universal CoC

[AndyTheGrump]

Got to agree that the thread needs a more appropriate title. This is important, and needs to be presented to the public in a manner that will be taken seriously.

[Vigilant]

I have no idea what "YouCock" is supposed to be...

I'm honestly flabbergasted.

Universal Code of Conduct. UCoC. yoUCoCk.

In my cheese slipping off the cracker here? Is it slipping off of mine?

[No Ledge]

Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC), pronounced "yoUCoCk".

I, like Randy, missed that too. Maybe,

Trust and Safety is ramping up quislings to help with the YoUCoCk case review procedure coming next year

Not sure about "quislings" either. Maybe assume good faith that not all members of the case review committee will be "traitors" or "collaborators", especially if they are only appointed after gaining community approval for the task.

[Zoloft]

Not sure about "quislings" either. Maybe assume good faith that not all members of the case review committee will be "traitors" or "collaborators", especially if they are only appointed after gaining community approval for the task.

*cough*assume good faith*cough*

WPO:AGF is a redlink.

[Midsize Jake]

I thought about changing the title the moment I first saw it, but I quickly realized that there's no "short but sweet" way to describe what's going on with this thing.

We could be absolutely "neutral" about it and just call it "WMF Trust & Safety 'Case Review Committee' recruitment," which might also improve our Google PageRank for the thread. However, that title not only fails to make the YoUCoCk connection, it might also imply that we're taking the committee seriously, i.e., that it has more legitimacy than it deserves at this point. I've already stated that I don't believe the committee can claim legitimacy until they actually overturn something, and since the only thing people care about are global bans, that means they'd almost have to overturn a global ban. But I realized that I might be in a small minority for thinking that, so of course I was paralyzed into inaction.

Meanwhile, referring to the UCoC as "YoUCoCk" is funny and all, but in terms of Google-juice, it's a mixed bag. I'm not an SEO professional, but IMO, common sense tells us it's pointless to compete with porn sites and porn link-farmers on a search term, no matter how you're contextualizing it. And while it's true that we're currently the #1 result for the words "youcock assraping," I'm afraid we have to ask ourselves: Is that a term people are really going to be searching on, if they're looking for information about the Trust & Safety Case Review Committee or the WMF Universal Code of Conduct? I wouldn't think so, but even if they did, I'd expect they'd only use that terminology after having interacted with T&S and the committee, not before.

So, it's tricky.

[Vigilant]

I've seen yoUCoCk references in the wild, which is funny to me since a large contingent of en.wp regulars read here.

[Moral Hazard]

Change the title, please.

WMF changes goal of Trust & Safety from stopping child-predators to stopping WrongThink.

Also, the word Quisling is a proper noun.

[No Ledge]

Also, the word Quisling is a proper noun.

Only in Norwegian, according to Wiktionary.

Etymology
After Vidkun Quisling (T-H-L) (1887–1945), who ruled the Nazi collaborationist government of Norway during World War Two.

I did not know that. Just looked it up.

I do have a concern that Wikipedia's SJW-types will gravitate to volunteering for seats on the committee, while editors like me can't be bothered.

[Giraffe Stapler]

I do have a concern that Wikipedia's SJW-types will gravitate to volunteering for seats on the committee, while editors like me can't be bothered.

Svelte Jewish Women? Striking Janitorial Workers? Subtropical January Weather?

[Jim]

I do have a concern

while editors like me can't be bothered.

That's just life. Don't feel too bad about it. I often can't be bothered either, and I don't think I'm an "editor like you" .

[Vigilant]

How on earth did I miss this?!

Graaf tests the new ban appeal process

Graaf has given me permission to say something about his attempt to appeal a global, or WMF office ban, sometimes known as a “SanFranBan”. I do not have permission from anyone else, so I will just describe the bare details.

WMF office bans are published by the WMF Trust and Safety (T&S) group, formerly known as SuSa (Support and Safety). The policy is described at WMF Global Ban Policy. In August 2020, a new ban appeal process to a special “Case Review Committee” became available. It was added to the policy in early September.

Early in November, Graaf sent an appeal. His original email was sent to an individual from a Dutch language blog who he wished to represent him formally, and Graaf then sent it to the WMF on with the note from the representative, and an additional note from himself. The appeal asked for two million euros per person for Graaf and his representative, and also for the Dutch Wikimedia Organisation to support him in his rehabilitation. The email was acknowledged six days later by the “The Interim Trust & Safety Case Review Committee”, who said they were sending the request to WMF Legal to see if it was eligible for review, and that Graaf could expect a response from them in another week or so. Any hypothetical responses received by Graaf from the Wikimedia Foundation Legal Team would probably be protected by some kind of lawyer/client privilege nondisclosure statement thingy that lawyers always add to their emails, even if they are just saying “have a nice day”, which probably represents billable hours, so let’s just skip on ahead, to… Graaf’s final response was to WMF Legal, ten days after his original request, thanking them for their trouble, and assuring them he would not enter WMF infrastructure in the future.

By the way, if you have ever wondered about the avatar Graaf has used on various platforms, it can be found on Commons as File:Portrait of Cornelis van Lill his son and the painter, Aert Schouman (1735).jpg

Delicious!

Why would you ask 'an individual from a Dutch language blog who he wished to represent him formally' to represent you in an appeal like this and why would you ask for the same settlement for them as for you?!

I'm just going to go ahead and guess that the Insane Dutch Clown Posse Minus All But One Clown party did not prevail in their attempts to acquire the phat l00t from the WMF legal team.

I can only imagine the number or retinal repair surgeries that are upcoming in the T&S team for all of the supernormal eye rolling they did upon receipt of this insane request. "Hey! Let's get legal to do this one! We hate those guys!"


Martin's own take on the outcome is so very, very ABD-esque.

graafhimself

DECEMBER 12, 2020 AT 8:58 AM

Bla, bla, bla of joy riding kids with a kangaroo court who are acting ihey do something usefull.
Amateurism at itś best and a total wasting of donor money,

What they know themself too of course.

But it is a well payed job, isn it?.

Extreem gud Lux in ur next adventur, Giraffe Stapler!


These guys are in a league of their own.

[Beeblebrox]

So... I'm just trying to parse this out here... he decided to appeal his ban, by having someone else represent him and ask the WMF for a few million bucks? That's not even a ban appeal. "Forward to legal and forget it" is about all you can do with something like that.

[AndyTheGrump]

I can't help wondering whether this "individual from a Dutch language blog" was a troll, playing along with it for laughs.

[Midsize Jake]

So... I'm just trying to parse this out here... he decided to appeal his ban, by having someone else represent him and ask the WMF for a few million bucks? That's not even a ban appeal. "Forward to legal and forget it" is about all you can do with something like that.

Mr. Statler's entire raison d'etre is apparently to get attention by poisoning every well he can find — in this context, by abusing venues in ways that are so ridiculous that it makes others less inclined to take those venues seriously. In this case I would have to say he failed pretty badly, since we didn't even know he was doing this until several weeks had passed, and everyone knows the Review Committee was never going to be taken seriously anyway. He didn't even get a thread on WikipediaSucks.

Still, I hope he gets the money, because it would be a better use of WMF funds than the sort of thing they usually do.

[Ada Sinn]

I do have a concern that Wikipedia's SJW-types will gravitate to volunteering for seats on the committee, while editors like me can't be bothered.

Svelte Jewish Women? Striking Janitorial Workers? Subtropical January Weather?

Social Justice Wankers

[Midsize Jake]

I usually suggest that folks substitute the term "yo' mama" in their posts wherever they might otherwise use "SJW," and then use the "Preview" button to see what it looks like before sending it out into the world. If it seems stupid with "yo' mama," it'll probably look stupid with "SJW" too, since it basically amounts to the same intellectual conceit at a similar emotional level.

[Randy from Boise]

Graaf is a fucking lunatic.

Don't try to interpret his actions. You'd sooner have success trying to divine relevant contemporary political statement from a Jackson Pollock...

t

[Smiley]

[Vigilant]

Graaf is a fucking lunatic.

Don't try to interpret his actions. You'd sooner have success trying to divine relevant contemporary political statement from a Jackson Pollock...

slow

[Poetlister]

I do have a concern that Wikipedia's SJW-types will gravitate to volunteering for seats on the committee, while editors like me can't be bothered.

Svelte Jewish Women? Striking Janitorial Workers? Subtropical January Weather?

Social Justice Wankers

Seriously Jaundiced Whiners.

[Poetlister]

The Movement Strategy Support Team has shared the results from the second set of Global Conversations here.

Further discussions are taking place here.

[Osborne]

https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/2554112

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a Lead Trust & Safety Policy Manager to join the Legal team to advance the Wikimedia movement’s vision of every human being able to freely share in the sum of all knowledge; as well as its strategic direction - that by 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us.

The Lead Trust & Safety Policy Manager will report to the Manager, Trust & Safety Policy. As part of its investment in the sustainability and well-being of its volunteer online communities, the Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a seasoned online platform policy expert who is able to guide the organization’s T&S policy development processes, academic relations, and take on policy initiatives of strategic importance.

[Osborne]

Can we change to a safe-for-work title?

[CoffeeCrumbs]

I agree. I object to the use of "Trust and Safety" to describe that group.

[Poetlister]

I agree. I object to the use of "Trust and Safety" to describe that group.

It's par for the course in Wikiworld for words to be used to mean something different from their normal everyday meaning. Think of "consensus" and "community" for example.

[Osborne]

It's par for the course in Wikiworld for words to be used to mean something different from their normal everyday meaning.

Yep. Usually the opposite.

[Poetlister]

It's par for the course in Wikiworld for words to be used to mean something different from their normal everyday meaning.

Yep. Usually the opposite.

So "Trust and Safety" is something that we don't trust and does little to provide safety for those who most need it.

[Vigilant]

FULL STEAM AHEAD, FUCKERS!

Never mind that there are serious open questions....

[Anroth]

I mean as written it labels as harrassment if anyone witnesses or is concerned about a criminal or safeguarding matter and reports it to the appropriate authorities (Hint, T&S are not the appropriate authorities).

Some of us work in professions where have a statutory obligation to report certain things to certain bodies. Financial irregularity for example.

Not to mention if we witness actions taken by WMF staff or volunteers. "You cant tell anyone about it".

Then there is the perception of protection for (as an example) women at events. If you know in advance you will be labelled a harasser for reporting sexual assault it has a chilling effect. How safe would you feel knowing your reporting channels were being muzzled?

The WMF basically wants to hide the identities of people, but the actual outcome is to enable abuse (internal and external) and hinder investigation.

[Anroth]

One interesting thing that also popped up as an aside on Iridescent's talkpage (always a good place for meaningful discussion) is the statement in the UCOC harrassment section "The Wikimedia movement does not endorse "race" and "ethnicity" as meaningful distinctions among people - Their inclusion here is to mark that they are prohibited in use against others as the basis for personal attacks."
Good luck with that, as many countries have those as both protected characteristics as well as deliberately targeting (amongst others) healthcare, education, safeguarding projects towards areas identified by race & ethnicity, specifically because race & ethnicity can affect on a basic level access to services, access to information, access to local government help....

No one is going to disagree that using race or ethnicity as insults should be covered by harrassment. But I would say the opposite is true. The Wikimedia movement absolutely does endorse race and ethnicity as meaning distinctions, otherwise any educational programs that are specifically targetting ethnic groups are dead in the water.

[Parabola]

• Parabola. Wikipediocracy In Conversation With Itself. 2021, The Art Institute of Coney Island, New York.

[Midsize Jake]

You just have to remember that they're ramping up the quislings, not "dressing up" or "sexing up" the quislings. So it's really only creepy if the ramps are covered in sex lubricant, like they are on those Japanese "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" TV shows.

[CoffeeCrumbs]

You just have to remember that they're ramping up the quislings, not "dressing up" or "sexing up" the quislings. So it's really only creepy if the ramps are covered in sex lubricant, like they are on those Japanese "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" TV shows.

We all know they just stole the concept from David Gerard's house.

[Vigilant]

Please try to relax...

Affirmation of the UCoC among certain groups

The UCoC applies to everyone who interacts and contributes to Wikimedia projects, official in-person events, and related spaces hosted on third party platforms. The following individuals should be required to affirm (through signed declaration or other format to be decided) they will acknowledge and adhere to the Universal Code of Conduct:

All Wikimedia Foundation staff, Board members, Wikimedia affiliate board members, staff and contractors;
All advanced rights holders;
All members of any project’s high level decision making body;
Any individual who wants to use the Wikimedia Foundation trademark in an event such as, but not limited to: events branded with Wikimedia trademarks (such as by including them in the event's title) and representation of the Wikimedia organization, community, or project at an event (such as, but not limited to, a presenter or a booth operator);
Any officer of a Wikimedia affiliate or aspiring Wikimedia affiliate (such as, but not limited to: an individual, or group of individuals who is seeking to promote and/or collaborate a Wikimedia sponsored event, group, study, either on or off-wiki in a research setting).

The users listed above should accomplish the affirmation at the occasion of acquiring the right or role, as well as every re-election, renewal or prolongation, the existing ones do so within a short time after the ratification of these guidelines, with exception of current advanced rights holders with rights that are not up for renewal who will not have a set timeframe to accomplish these affirmations. This may be changed on review after a year following the ratification of these guidelines. Once formed, the U4C will create procedures to facilitate these affirmations.

Systematic failure to follow the UCoC

Handled by U4C;
Some examples of systematic failure include:
Lack of local capacity to enforce the UCoC;
Consistent local decisions that conflict with the UCoC;
Refusal to enforce the UCoC;
Lack of resources or community or lack of will to address issues.

Off-wiki violations

(examples such as, but not limited to: in person edit-a-thons or off-wiki instances such as discussion lists or related space hosted on third-party platforms)

Existing local and global enforcement mechanisms like but not limited to : friendly space policies, rules of conferences, give the rules of behaviour and act in cases of off-wiki violations.
Handled by the U4C where no local structure (eg. ArbCom) exists, or if the case is referred to them by event organizers, local affiliate groups, or the bodies that handle single-wiki UCoC violations. In some cases, it may be helpful to report the off-wiki violations to enforcement structures of the relevant off-wiki space. This should not be construed so as to imply that existing local and global enforcement mechanisms cannot act in cases of off-wiki violations.
In instances of Foundation-hosted events, Trust & Safety provides event policy enforcement

Recommendations for the reporting and processing tool

In order to lower the technical barrier for reporting and processing UCoC violations, a centralized reporting and processing tool for UCoC violations shall be developed and maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation as a MediaWiki extension.

It would be a *shame* if every disagreement were reported to this tool.

Privacy and anonymity

Allow reports to be made either publicly (where all details of the case are viewable by the general public), or with varying degrees of privacy (for example, where the name of the reporter is hidden to the public; where the username of any individuals involved in the reported behaviour are hidden to the public; and other potential examples)
Permit reports to be made whether logged in or logged out

Oh dear...

[AndyTheGrump]

Having been a member, some decades back, of an organisation which claimed to adhere to the principles of democratic centralism (T-H-L), I've got to say I'm not keen to participate in another. Accordingly, I shall not be 'affirming' (through signed declaration or other format) the Universal Code of Conduct.

[tarantino]

Please try to relax...

Xeno is anonymous and a foundation employee making public pronouncements. Why is that acceptable?

[Smiley]

I've changed the name of thread, but can't be bothered to change every post heading.

If you want the heading on your post edited, please PM me.

[Vigilant]

Please try to relax...

Xeno is anonymous and a foundation employee making public pronouncements. Why is that acceptable?

His early en.wp editing history is pretty funny.

His user page history is scrubbed too.

Archive.org to the rescue.

Obviously, a fellow sophisticate.

[Randy from Boise]

The Wikimedia Foundation sucks ass.

Always has. Always will.

Leeches. Bureaucrats. Careerists. Incompetents. Dead weight.

t

[Anroth]

Privacy and anonymity

Allow reports to be made either publicly (where all details of the case are viewable by the general public), or with varying degrees of privacy (for example, where the name of the reporter is hidden to the public; where the username of any individuals involved in the reported behaviour are hidden to the public; and other potential examples)
Permit reports to be made whether logged in or logged out

Oh dear...

Yeah I have known about that one for awhile. I have a list of people who will be getting reports as soon as it goes live. I could sit here for a week straight and file CoC violations and still not make a dent.

Beebs has to watch out, you can guarantee some little shitebag who takes issue with him posting here will have a crack at him too.

[The Adversary]

The Wikimedia Foundation sucks ass.

Always has. Always will.

Leeches. Bureaucrats. Careerists. Incompetents. Dead weight.

t

Sadly, I agree with that.
If anything can/will kill wikipedia, it is the horrific mismanagement of the WMF.

[Beeblebrox]

Beebs has to watch out, you can guarantee some little shitebag who takes issue with him posting here will have a crack at him too.

They can't very well ban me when the largest community just elected me again, although I certainly agree that it is likely someone will try sooner rather than later.

I doubt that this will have serious consequences on the larger projects, in the short term anyway. There may well be wholesale purges on some of the smaller wikis that are more subject to being taken over by factions, I understand that to be rather the point of the whole thing.

[Smiley]

If anything can/will kill wikipedia, it is the horrific mismanagement of the WMF.

That, or a city-sized asteroid.

If defeating Wikipedia requires destroying the whole planet and everyone on it, then so be it.

[Vigilant]

I wonder what they'd do if some enterprising snark wrote a program that submitted 1M complaints?

[Mason]

They can't very well ban me when the largest community just elected me again…

Richard M. Nixon would like a word.

[Beeblebrox]

They can't very well ban me when the largest community just elected me again…

Richard M. Nixon would like a word.

yeah, but Nixon was not open about what he was doing.

[Smiley]

yeah, but Nixon was not open about what he was doing.

Is Beeblebrox your real name then?

[Giraffe Stapler]

I wonder what they'd do if some enterprising snark wrote a program that submitted 1M complaints?

My guess is that they would announce that they were temporarily taking down the complaints facility to improve process efficiency, hire more staff to deal with the unexpected large volume of complaints, dump whatever they had received, ban anonymous complaints, and go for beers.

[Anroth]

They can't very well ban me when the largest community just elected me again…

Richard M. Nixon would like a word.

yeah, but Nixon was not open about what he was doing.

I feel "The only difference between me and Nixon is Nixon hid his activities" is not a reliable defense!

[Randy from Boise]

yeah, but Nixon was not open about what he was doing.

Is Beeblebrox your real name then?

No, his name is Zaphod.

RfB