Happy Monday, everyone! Hopefully everyone’s doing well and staying safe in these weird times.
As of late, the admin team has been reviewing a lot
of flags on the forums where people are sharing information that could potentially put themselves or others in danger. Making friends on wikiHow is a great thing - I and many other wikiHowians have met some incredible people through here, and I’ll freely admit that I talk to several offsite regularly. But the reality is that not everyone on wikiHow is someone you want
to talk to offsite; there can be predatory (or even just weird or annoying) people on wikiHow too, and they’re not always easy to recognize. Someone who wants to take advantage of you can be surprisingly good at hiding their intent.
While we will do whatever we can to protect users from harassment or predatory people who might join wikiHow, I want to be extremely clear that as soon as it leaves wikiHow, our hands are tied.We can block people on wikiHow and the forums, we can disable a blocked user’s emailing privileges, and we can advise you to block people or remove them from groups, but we can’t stop them from trying to contact you offsite or doing things like trying to find where you live or where you go to school. The forums are public; anyone can see posts here, even without a wikiHow account. For this reason, you’re strongly advised to protect your privacy and not open up ways for people to look you up or contact you without your explicit permission - which includes not posting certain things on the forums.
So what kind of things are unsafe to post publicly? Here’s a short, but by no means complete, list of what not to post:
- Invites to any
Google groups (Google Meets, Google Classroom, etc.)
- Invites or usernames for group chats or voice/video calling services (like Discord, Zoom, or Google Meets)
- Email addresses, including school email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Social media usernames, or links to your profiles
- Any information that could be used to identify you (like your full name, age, where you live, or where you go to school)
- Photos of yourself
If we come across any of these things in your posts, an administrator will edit or delete the post in order to protect your safety and the safety of others. (Non-administrators, if you come across these posts, please flag them so we can review them.)
But what if you’ve met someone on wikiHow and you want to talk with them offsite? We’re not stopping you - a lot of us have done it. While you should always take precautions to keep yourself safe, here’s what you can do if you want to talk to someone off of wikiHow, and some tips to protect yourself:
- Email them through the wikiHow system. Go to their User page on the main site and click the button that says “Email [Username]” in their profilebox. If they have an email connected to their wikiHow account, you’ll be able to send them an email through the wikiHow system. (If they don’t, don’t give them personal information or another way to contact you - there’s very little reason for someone to not have an email address.)
- Be mindful of what information you share. Just because someone says they’re 14 doesn’t mean they actually are, and just because someone mentions living in the same state as you doesn’t mean you should ask what town they live in or tell them where you live. Don’t trust someone the second they share something about themselves!
- Only share group invites or social media through email, and only share them with those you trust. This means that only the people you want
to talk to will have easy access to these things, and that random people on the forums or the main site can’t easily find them.
- Be extremely
careful if you choose to share photos of yourself or video call with someone. People can save your photos or take screenshots of your video feed, and they may share them without your consent. (And remember, catfishing exists! If someone sends you a picture and says it’s of themselves, but you aren’t sure it’s legitimate, try doing a reverse image search to see if the photo comes up anywhere else.)
- It’s best to only meet up with wikiHowians you’ve already met in person at official wikiHow meetups. If you haven’t met someone in person already, but really want to, you should meet them in a public place with a trusted family member or friend. (Although with COVID going on, you might be better off waiting until an official meetup!)
- If you’re under 18, and your parents or guardians aren’t abusive or incredibly overprotective, talk to them about your wikiHow friends. Yes, sometimes they don’t get it and can be weird about internet friends - a lot of adults don’t understand. But if something happens - if someone is making you uncomfortable, or they start emailing you or messaging you constantly on social media and won’t back off, or things like that - it will be easier to ask them for help than if you have to spend an hour explaining to them what wikiHow is. (If you think your parents will react abusively, you don’t have to tell them, but hopefully your parents have good intentions and want to help you stay safe.)
If you have any questions, are worried that someone is sharing too much personal information, or feel unsafe because someone on the site is bothering you, please never be afraid to ask the admin team for help. You can flag posts on the forums, report on the ANB, or reach out to an admin directly via email or Talk page. We’re always happy to help keep this community safe
tl;dr: While making friends on wikiHow is great, the forums are public
and anyone can view posts on them. Posts with any identifying information or invites to groups will be removed for user safety. Please take steps to keep yourself safe!
