Re: Reporting, Reviewing, and Responding to Harassment on Tw
Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 9:11 am
APPENDIX 3: WAM! REPORTING FORM
The design of the WAM! reporting form, accessible only through the WAM! website, shaped the data the project received and consequently the analysis contained in this document. Though the actual form has since been removed, screenshots of the backup, privately mirrored version of the form follow. These are expanded through written descriptions to detail the possible variations, nonvisible text, and answer restrictions reporters would have encountered.
WAM! Women, Action, & the Media
WAM Twitter Harassment Reporting Tool (Pilot)
People who visited the WAM! reporting form found a single page of 16–20 questions. The range reflects the presence of two choice points in the form, where selections could lead to additional questions. The first set of additional questions opened in conjunction with the very first question: Are you the person being targeted on Twitter? The default response reporters saw was ‘Yes.’ If reporters responded ‘No,’ they were asked to include their own name and email address, as well as indicate whether the report was being made with the awareness of the target of the harassment. The second set of additional questions opened in response to the answer to question 13 of the base form: Are you being harassed on multiple platforms? This defaulted to ‘No.’ If reporters responded ‘Yes,’ they were asked additional questions about what other platforms harassment was occurring on.
Multiple questions included rollover explanations, or additional information that became visible when the reporter’s cursor hovered over the question. These served several purposes. Rollovers were used to provide guidance and clarification. In particular, they were used in conjunction with questions asking for names and emails to explain how to answer these questions if the reporter was not the target of the harassment. Similarly, a rollover was used to explain that a reporter need provide only a single example tweet; more could be shared at a later point. Rollovers were also used to direct the format of input: a rollover associated with the question about the Twitter handle of the target of harassment asked reporters not to include the @ symbol in their answer; a rollover requesting a numerical entry accompanied the question about how many weeks harassment had been occurring. Rollovers were used twice specifically to explain why questions were being asked: for bystanders, to explain that WAM! wanted to analyze data about bystander reporting and the harassment target’s awareness of it; and with regard to the phone number request, to explain this might be used for verification or communication. Rollovers were not used with the categories of harassment or the question, Do you fear for your personal safety due to this harassment?
Just over half of the questions were required; these are marked with a red superscript star. If any of these were left unanswered, form submission would not complete: reporters would be presented with the form again with missing information brought to their attention. Note that in addition to items marked as required and items left unmarked, the question soliciting the reporter’s phone number is specifically labeled “Optional.” The format of acceptable answers varied with the question; formats used included radio buttons (the circular answer options) with pre-assigned answers, free text boxes, and numerical entry boxes. Radio buttons allowed only a single selection.
The design of the WAM! reporting form, accessible only through the WAM! website, shaped the data the project received and consequently the analysis contained in this document. Though the actual form has since been removed, screenshots of the backup, privately mirrored version of the form follow. These are expanded through written descriptions to detail the possible variations, nonvisible text, and answer restrictions reporters would have encountered.
WAM! Women, Action, & the Media
WAM Twitter Harassment Reporting Tool (Pilot)
People who visited the WAM! reporting form found a single page of 16–20 questions. The range reflects the presence of two choice points in the form, where selections could lead to additional questions. The first set of additional questions opened in conjunction with the very first question: Are you the person being targeted on Twitter? The default response reporters saw was ‘Yes.’ If reporters responded ‘No,’ they were asked to include their own name and email address, as well as indicate whether the report was being made with the awareness of the target of the harassment. The second set of additional questions opened in response to the answer to question 13 of the base form: Are you being harassed on multiple platforms? This defaulted to ‘No.’ If reporters responded ‘Yes,’ they were asked additional questions about what other platforms harassment was occurring on.
Multiple questions included rollover explanations, or additional information that became visible when the reporter’s cursor hovered over the question. These served several purposes. Rollovers were used to provide guidance and clarification. In particular, they were used in conjunction with questions asking for names and emails to explain how to answer these questions if the reporter was not the target of the harassment. Similarly, a rollover was used to explain that a reporter need provide only a single example tweet; more could be shared at a later point. Rollovers were also used to direct the format of input: a rollover associated with the question about the Twitter handle of the target of harassment asked reporters not to include the @ symbol in their answer; a rollover requesting a numerical entry accompanied the question about how many weeks harassment had been occurring. Rollovers were used twice specifically to explain why questions were being asked: for bystanders, to explain that WAM! wanted to analyze data about bystander reporting and the harassment target’s awareness of it; and with regard to the phone number request, to explain this might be used for verification or communication. Rollovers were not used with the categories of harassment or the question, Do you fear for your personal safety due to this harassment?
Just over half of the questions were required; these are marked with a red superscript star. If any of these were left unanswered, form submission would not complete: reporters would be presented with the form again with missing information brought to their attention. Note that in addition to items marked as required and items left unmarked, the question soliciting the reporter’s phone number is specifically labeled “Optional.” The format of acceptable answers varied with the question; formats used included radio buttons (the circular answer options) with pre-assigned answers, free text boxes, and numerical entry boxes. Radio buttons allowed only a single selection.