http://www.haltabuse.org/

The mission of W.H.O.A. is to educate the Internet community about online harassment, empower victims of harassment, and formulate voluntary policies that systems can adopt in order to create harassment-free environments.

W.H.O.A. fully supports the right to free speech both online and off, but asserts that free speech is not protected when it involves threats to the emotional or physical safety of anyone. W.H.O.A. is primarily an organization of women, but we welcome men who demonstrate sensitivity toward the issues of harassment and a willingness to support our cause.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), March 31, 2000

Answers

halt abuse here ya go!

-- helpin' out (just@helpin.hand), March 31, 2000.

It's so quiet in here...I can hear a pin drop...

-- (pin@drop.here), March 31, 2000.

"W.H.O.A. is primarily an organization of women, but we welcome men who demonstrate sensitivity toward the issues of harassment and a willingness to support our cause."

That's a good thing, 'cause, "guys" are certainly harassed also.

-- (it @goes.both_ways), March 31, 2000.

Cherri: Thanks for the information, I have bookmarked it and I hope I will never have to use it - sorta like having a gun in the house, it's there when you need it.

-- tit-t-tat (tit-4-tatt@tit-4-tatt.xcom), March 31, 2000.

I don't understand why one would need the services of this group. MANY chat rooms have an ignore option which can be set by individuals towards individuals, and which will automagically kick in if a given person begins spamming the room. Most E-mail systems have filters. If someone is sending E-mail that you don't like, you can simply have their mail deleted from the server before it ever gets to you.

When I first became involved in the internet, 4 or 5 years ago now, there were weekly chats on MSN for women. Sometimes they were interesting and sometimes they weren't, and men WERE invited if they didn't use the room to pick up women, etc. Of course the chats were hosted by MSN and there was an administrator who would kick out anyone who REALLY got out of control, but there were certain guidelines that were ALWAYS discussed in EVERY chat. For instance, MSN chats provide a PROFILE function [much like the one on EZBOARD.] Folks could fill in their profile with all kinds of personal information. We were encouraged to leave it blank in the interest of safety. The chats were always recorded, with transcripts available to whoever asked. We were encouraged to say NOTHING in chat that would give a casual observer information about where we lived, etc.

IRL, harrassment is a problem, and we SHOULD be careful about providing such personal information that a weirdo might one day show up at our door, but unkind words/threats, etc. on the internet can easily be ignored.

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), April 01, 2000.

Yeah, I don't understand this either -- if you have problems, just stay out of the chatrooms and out of forums where the participants make you uncomfortable. I know lots of ladies who post with a male name or a neuter name and just go anywhere they want. Would that RL were that easy, then I wouldn't have to worry about my sister at college.

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), April 01, 2000.