 | This page is a policy on Bharatpedia. Many people agree with it. They see it as a standard idea that all users should follow. When changing this page (except for minor errors like typos), please check that other people agree with your changes. Use the talk page when you are not sure or when you want to suggest a change. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Do not stop other editors from enjoying Bharatpedia by making threats, repeated annoying and unwanted contacts, repeated personal attacks, intimidation, or posting personal information. |
 | If you are a user who is being harassed, see § Dealing with harassment. |
| Conduct policies |
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Harassment is a pattern of repeated offensive behavior that appears to a reasonable observer to intentionally target a specific person or persons. Usually, the purpose is to make the target feel threatened or intimidated, and the outcome may be to make editing Bharatpedia unpleasant for the target, to undermine, frighten, or discourage them from editing.
Bharatpedia must never be misused to harass anyone, whether or not the subject of the harassment is an editor here. Edits constituting harassment will be reverted, deleted, or suppressed, as appropriate, and editors who engage in harassment are subject to blocking and banning.
Harassment can include actions calculated to be noticed by the target and clearly suggestive of targeting them, even when no direct communication takes place.
Types of harassment and disruption[edit source]
Harassment, including threats, intimidation, repeated annoying and unwanted contact or attention, and repeated personal attacks may reduce an editor's enjoyment of Bharatpedia and thus cause disruption to the project. Harassment of an editor on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religious or political beliefs, disability, ethnicity, nationality, etc. is not allowed.
The prohibition against harassment applies equally to all Bharatpedians. It is as unacceptable to harass a user with a history of inept or disruptive behavior as it is to harass any other user. Bharatpedia encourages a civil community: people make mistakes, but they are encouraged to learn from them and change their ways. Harassment is contrary to this spirit and damaging to the work of building an encyclopedia.
Hounding[edit source]
Hounding on Bharatpedia (or "wikihounding") is the singling out of one or more editors, joining discussions on multiple pages or topics they may edit or multiple debates where they contribute, to repeatedly confront or inhibit their work. This is with an apparent aim of creating irritation, annoyance, or distress to the other editor. Hounding usually involves following the target from place to place on Bharatpedia.
Many users track other users' edits, although usually for collegial or administrative purposes. This should always be done with care, and with good cause, to avoid raising the suspicion that an editor's contributions are being followed to cause them distress, or out of revenge for a perceived slight. Correct use of an editor's history includes (but is not limited to) fixing unambiguous errors or violations of Bharatpedia policy, or correcting related problems on multiple articles. In fact, such practices are recommended both for Recent changes patrol and WikiProject Spam. The contribution logs can be used in the dispute resolution process to gather evidence to be presented in incidents and arbitration cases. Using dispute resolution can itself constitute hounding if it involves persistently making frivolous or meritless complaints about another editor.
The important component of hounding is disruption to another user's own enjoyment of editing, or disruption to the project generally, for no overridingly constructive reason. Even if the individual edits themselves are not disruptive per se, "following another user around", if done to cause distress, or if accompanied by tendentiousness, personal attacks, or other disruptive behavior, may become a very serious matter and could result in blocks and other editing restrictions.
One form hounding may take is for the hounder to create an account (sometimes multiple) that acts like their target but edits in bad faith, which they use to attempt to get their target blocked (or banned if they have already been blocked), as if their target had created their own sockpuppet. This is sometimes called a false flag or Joe jobbing on Bharatpedia.
Threats[edit source]
Threatening another person is considered harassment. This includes any real-world threats, such as threats of harm, and threats to disrupt a person's work on Bharatpedia. Statements of intent to properly use normal Bharatpedia processes, such as dispute resolution, are not threats. Legal threats are a special case of threat, with their own settled policy. Users who make legal threats will typically be blocked from editing indefinitely.
Perceived legal threats[edit source]
Bharatpedia has a policy of blocking users who post legal threats on Bharatpedia against other editors. It is important not to post comments that others may reasonably interpret as a legal threat; words such as libelous or defamatory are best avoided for that reason. In handling apparent legal threats, users should seek to clarify the poster's intention, explain the policy, and ask them to remove the threat. The existence of a legal dispute between users is not a valid reason to block, so long as no legal threats are posted on Bharatpedia.
Posting of personal information[edit source]
Posting another editor's personal information is unacceptable, unless that person has voluntarily posted their own information, or links to such information, on Bharatpedia. Personal information includes an editor's real-life name, date of birth, identification numbers, home or workplace address, job title and work organisation, telephone number, email address, personal profiles on external sites, other contact information, or photograph, whether such information is accurate or not. Posting such information about another editor is an unjustifiable and uninvited invasion of privacy and may place that editor at risk of harm outside their activities on Bharatpedia. Unless unintentional and non-malicious (for example, where Bharatpedians know each other off-site and may inadvertently post personal information, such as using the other person's real name in discussions), attempted outing is sufficient grounds for an immediate block. This applies to the personal information of both editors and non-editors.
How to deal with personal information[edit source]
If you have accidentally posted anything that might lead to you being outed (including but not limited to inadvertently editing while logged out, which reveals your IP address, and thus, your approximate location), it is important that you act promptly to have the edit(s) suppressed. Do not otherwise draw attention to the information. Referring to still-existing, self-disclosed posted information is not considered outing, and so the failure of an editor to have the information redacted in a timely manner may remove it from protection by this policy. Further information about protecting private information is at Personal security practices, On privacy, and How to not get outed on Bharatpedia.
Any edit that outs someone must be reverted promptly, followed by a request for oversight to delete that edit from Bharatpedia. Any administrator may redact it pending oversight, even when the administrator is involved. If an editor has previously posted their own personal information but later redacted it, it should not be repeated on Bharatpedia, although references to still-existing, self-disclosed information are not considered outing. If the previously posted information has been removed by oversight, then repeating it on Bharatpedia is considered outing.
If you see an editor post personal information about another person, do not confirm or deny the accuracy of the information. Doing so would give the person posting the information, and anyone else who saw the page, feedback on the accuracy of the material. For the same reason, do not treat incorrect attempts at outing any differently from correct attempts. When reporting an attempted outing take care not to comment on the accuracy of the information. Outing should usually be described as "an attempted outing" or similar, to make it clear that the information may or may not be true, and it should be made clear to the users blocked for outing that the block log and notice does not confirm the information.
The fact that an editor has posted personal information or edits under their own name, making them easily identifiable through online searches, is not an excuse to post the results of "opposition research". Dredging up their off-site opinions to repeatedly challenge their edits can be a form of harassment, just as doing so regarding their past edits on other Bharatpedia articles may be. Threats to out an editor are treated as personal attacks and are prohibited.
Exceptions[edit source]
Nothing in this policy prohibits the emailing of personal information about editors to individual administrators, functionaries, or arbitrators, or to the Bharatmedia Foundation, when doing so is necessary to report violations of confidentiality-sensitive policies (such as conflict of interest or paid editing, harassment, or violations of the child-protection policy). Only the minimum information necessary should be conveyed and the minimum number of people contacted. Editors are warned, however, that the community has rejected the idea that editors should "investigate" each other. Posting such information on Bharatpedia violates this policy.
Posting links to other accounts on other websites is allowable in specific situations (but see also Bharatpedia:Linking to external harassment):
Blocking for harassment[edit source]
- In extreme cases, such as legal threats, threats of violence, or outing, protective blocks may be employed without prior warnings.
- Incidents of wikihounding generally receive a warning. If wikihounding persists after a warning, escalating blocks are often used, beginning with 24 hours.
What harassment is not[edit source]
This policy is aimed to protect victims of genuine harassment which is meant to cause distress to the user, such as repeated and unwanted correspondence or postings. Like the word stalk, harass carries real-life connotations – from simple unseemly behavior to criminal conduct – and must be used judiciously and with respect to these connotations.
However, some editors seem to give "harassment" a much broader, and inappropriate, meaning encompassing normal and appropriate editing practices such as merely editing the same page as another user, or warning another user for disruption or incivility. Such activities are not harassment if done civilly and in good faith.
It is also not harassment to track a user's contributions for policy violations (see above); that is part of what editor contribution histories are for. Editors do not own article content, or their own edits, and any other editor has the right to revert edits as appropriate. Unwarranted resistance to such efforts may be a sign of ownership behavior and lead to sanctions.
Unfounded accusations of harassment are a serious personal attack and dealt with accordingly.
See also[edit source]
- Bharatpedia:Responding to threats of harm
- Bharatpedia:Wikibullying
- Bharatpedia:How to not get outed on Bharatpedia, a page that provides a list of items to help prevent being outed.
- Bharatpedia:Arbitration policy/Precedents#Personal attacks
- Bharatpedia:Casting aspersions – accusing others of misbehavior without evidence.
- Bharatpedia:WikiLawyering
- Bharatpedia:Ragpicking
- Bharatpedia:Personal security practices
- WMF Community health initiative, an anti-harassment project underway starting in 2017