Wikipedia talk:Harassment

Edit history to dox somebody?

What if lets say one editor makes constructive edits to these pages in order and nothing else.

Example

Userpage of a user they are doxxing

The page "IP address"

Since IP addresses are limited between 0 and 255, the doxxer edits four pages with the titles being the IP address numbers. ~2026-31000-49 (talk) 07:12, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, there is an infinitely large number of ways to subtly encode doxxing information, and that is one of them. If someone is able to tell that's what is going on in a situation, they should refer the matter to Oversight. If no one can decipher the hidden message, well, then no harm has occurred. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (they|xe|🤷) 07:32, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

Oversight has dealt with at least one example of something similar to this in the past. If you see anything of this nature then send the details to the Oversight team and we will take the appropriate action. Do not post about it publicly as that will just draw attention to the edits (see Streisand effect). Thryduulf (talk) 10:24, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

@~2026-31000-49 This is WP:BEANS as it is telling doxxers a new way of doxxing even though your intention may be to alert oversighters about a new way of doxxing. ~2026-31165-28 (talk) 12:47, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

Question about application

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Does this policy also apply to administrators here on the English Wikipedia? Just curious. ~2026-33190-89 (talk) 07:46, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

I presume this is regarding the issue you raised at ANI, you've had responses there so please continue the discussion here. In solidarity, Blue-Sonnet (I'm listening) 08:18, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Is the following real situation oversight-worthy doxxing

I came across the following situation, but I am not sure if it is truly oversight-worthy:

Person X was involved in a certain incident that is being discussed on an article talk page. Person X is publicly associated with a certain Wikimedia account (which has very few edits); let's call it account Y.

There also is account Z, which has been registered ~20 years ago and has a substantial edit count. For the vast majority of its existence, its username was remarkably similar to person X's real name, but it was renamed relatively recently, before that incident was publicly known.

From a certain IP's comments on the article talk page, it is obvious that they want to draw person X's attention. Then, they ping both account Y and account Z. Does this constitute doxxing? Should I report this to oversighters? Are past usernames considered confidential?

—Janhrach (talk) 20:50, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

There are so many aspects of this that would depend on the specifics, and we obviously can't go into that here. But it sounds like some of this might make an older account end up getting linked to a real-life identity, and that has, at least, the potential of being harassment. (In general, past usernames do not lose the presumption of confidentiality.) So my advice would be to go ahead and report it to the oversighters (you can say that you aren't sure about this), and let them make the call. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:57, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Okay, I will mail them a report. Janhrach (talk) 20:59, 20 June 2026 (UTC)