Harassment survey 2015; Luis Villa to leave WMF; knowledge engine background

News and notes

Harassment survey 2015; Luis Villa to leave WMF; knowledge engine background

Harassment survey results released

As announced by the WMF's Patrick Earley on the Wikimedia-l mailing list, a report on the results of the 2015 Harassment Survey has been released:

“

This information is an important factor in gaining a better understanding of both the forms harassment takes and the impact it has on the Wikimedia projects. We welcome your feedback and impressions on the Research talk page on Meta.

”

An overview of the results

Of the 3,845 Wikimedians who participated, 38% of the respondents could confidently recognise that they had been harassed, while 15% were unsure and 47% were confident that they had not been harassed. Similarly, 51% witnessed others being harassed, while 17% were unsure and 32% did not witness harassment.
79% of survey participants identified as male; 11% identified as female; 1% identified as gender-queer or non-conforming; 7% preferred not to say; and 2% declared a different gender identity.
Well over half the survey participants who provided their age indicated that they were 35 years or over.
14% of respondents indicated that they had participated in Wikimedia projects for 10 years; 13% indicated that they had participated one year or less. All other lengths of participation had fewer respondents than these two classes of users.
The most commonly experienced types of harassment among those who said they had experienced some form of harassment were, in descending order of prevalence,
- Content vandalism: 85%
- Trolling/flaming: 83%
- Name calling: 79%
- Discrimination: 74%
- Stalking: 74%
- Outing/doxxing: 67%
- Threats of violence: 65%
- Impersonation: 65%
- Hacking: 63%
- Revenge porn: 61%
- Other: 57%
The most common type of harassment in the "other" category was "unjustified use of admin tools and processes, or threats thereof".
53% of those who experienced harassment said the incidents were perpetrated by multiple people through multiple episodes.

The survey results have been discussed on both Jimmy Wales' talk page and on the survey's talk page on Meta. Volunteers have questioned some of the results and alleged design defects in the survey, and WMF staff have responded.

Luis Villa is leaving the Foundation

Luis Villa

Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Lila Tretikov announced on February 8 on the wikimedia-l mailing list that Luis Villa is leaving the WMF:

“

Dear all,

I am sad to let you know that Luis Villa, our lead for the Community Engagement department, will be leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. A year ago, Luis took on a big challenge, transitioning from the Legal Department to lead the newly created Community Engagement organization. In that role, Luis and our teams were tasked with many recent community initiatives, such as the creation of the Community Tech team, gender-related and anti-harassment programs, and improved alignment of WMF annual planning with the Funds Dissemination Committee. Prior to that, as Deputy General Counsel he was responsible for a number of legal initiatives, including licensing, contracts, and product counseling. I’m grateful for his counsel, and his leadership in the WMF movement throughout these years.

Later this month, Luis will transition out of his current position with the Wikimedia Foundation to pursue other opportunities. He will remain in a consulting role with the Foundation over the next few months, continuing to support our ongoing strategy and annual planning processes.

[...]

Maggie Dennis [a.k.a. Moonriddengirl] will step in as the interim director for the CE team effective immediately. Her deep community background, passion for our mission, and outstanding teamwork are great assets in this transition. She will also continue to serve as Director of Support and Safety. Maggie is a respected leader, colleague, and community member. I am confident she will bring critical insights, especially now as we plan for our next year.

”

Knowledge engine grant

Lila Tretikov has released some background information on the knowledge engine grant on her user talk page in Meta.

Brief notes

New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, Peacemaker67.
Schedule for Metrics meetings changed: As advised by Lila Tretikov on the Wikimedia-l mailing list, Metrics meetings will from now on take place on the last Thursday of each month.
Hardcore pornographic movies in article space – yes or no? A discussion, originally sparked on the talk page of the Debbie Does Dallas article, is ongoing in several places about whether Wikipedia should or shouldn't embed out-of-copyright pornographic films in article space. The Debbie Does Dallas article has at times included the complete movie, enabling users to view it in the article itself; a small number of other articles like A Free Ride and Convent pornography similarly include embedded pornographic movies that have fallen out of copyright.

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Regarding the "WMF staff have responded" bit: there has been no reaction since the error they made was identified: they count all responses, regardless of the value entered. (The first two days the survey was online, users had to specify "times experienced" for all the types of harassment listed, skipping items was not allowed).

As I wrote on the talk page: The raw data proves that the response count they based the percentages on included responses where users entered '0' (or at least values smaller than 1), since the average and standard deviation listed for "hacking" and "revenge porn" are impossible when all values fall within the range 1 to 100 (Bhatia–Davis inequality). If they claim otherwise, they should publish all the responses given for either "hacking" or "revenge porn". Or let an independent third party examine the data. Prevalence (talk) 07:06, 9 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

61% of people who claimed to experience harassment in Wikimedia experienced Revenge Porn? I find that number somewhat incredible. Even if we assume that every respondent who experienced harassment responded to this survey (and thus avoid trying to extrapolate the percentages), that means that 3845*0.38*0.61=EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE Wikimedians experienced revenge porn as harassment. Were there really 891 separate incidents of revenge porn harassment on WMF sites since Wikipedia's founding in 2000? 60 a year? Is anyone aware of a single case of revenge porn harassment of Wikimedians? I'm not going to ask for a link or even description; wouldn't want to promote such conduct if it's occurred, but to me these numbers just strain credulity. Maybe I'm underestimating what gets uploaded to Wikimedia's image servers, though. 97.93.100.146 (talk) 00:21, 14 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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