On Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 2:07 AM, formaldude@protonmail.com wrote:
Hi Samaritans!
I'm a volunteer Wikipedia editor, and I was wondering if a representative of your organization might weigh in on a content dispute that has been occurring for some time now regarding suicidal content.
The Wikipedia community would greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter. If your willing to give some brief consultation, please let me know.
Thank you,
Ben
Volunteer Editor
English Wikipedia
FormalDude@ProtonMail.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FormalDude
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
On Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 9:54 AM, l.grace@samaritans.org wrote:
Hi Ben,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
Are you able to share a little more detail about the issue just so I know how we can best help?
I would be very happy to arrange a call if it would be helpful to chat.
Best wishes,
Lydia
Lydia Grace (she/her)
Policy & Research Programme Manager, Online Harms
The disputed content is about an essay. It's important to know that essays are typically only read by people who edit Wikipedia, and they're not in the main article space. The content in question is these three remarks that are included in this essay:
1. Give 'em enough rope, and they'll likely hang themselves.
2. the hangman is just asleep at the lever
3. Little do they know they have "hanged themselves"
Some editors think these statements are acceptable, others do not. It's almost evenly split–the dispute has been occurring since 2015. Essays are typically given a lot of leeway, so an organization like yourself weighing in could certainly make an impact.
Thank you for any assistance you can offer.
Ben
Volunteer Editor
English Wikipedia
FormalDude@ProtonMail.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FormalDude
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
On Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 1:32 AM, l.grace@samaritans.org wrote:
Hi Ben,
I’m really sorry for the delayed response.
I am currently off sick but I just saw this email and wanted to let you know that we will get back to you this week with our thoughts.
Can I just ask if you have any internal guidance on what content is and isn’t allowed?
Best wishes,
Lydia
On Thursday, October 28th, 2021 at 12:33 PM, formaldude@protonmail.com wrote:
No problem at all, thank you for the update.
There's not a lot of guidance on the issue, other than Wikipedia is not censored. Wikipedia also though does not allow threats of harm. There is a guideline on these threats located at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Threats_of_harm.
Ben
Volunteer Editor
English Wikipedia
FormalDude@ProtonMail.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FormalDude
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
On Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021 at 5:13 AM, l.grace@samaritans.org wrote:
Hi Ben,
We are so sorry for the delay. Apparently the colds took us down for longer than we expected and I am only just returning to work.
Thank you for sending the below.
We can’t advise on specific disputes as such (as we know all platforms have their own guidelines which you have to follow) but we do advise that people avoid writing about methods of harm online and if they are mentioned it is important to include as few details as possible. This is to ensure that you don’t raise awareness of that method or make it sound more attractive to readers who might be vulnerable.
