Anonymous asked: Abuse allegations anon here, I am happy to hear that you are currently investigating makes me think more highly of the rationalist community's ability to answer abuse allegations, although the original response back in June still make me think it could really be improved. Do you know whether REACH intend to make the result of the investigations public ?

REACH consulted an attorney about making the result of the Brent investigations public and were told that there was absolutely no way to do this without making each of the investigators individually liable in a defamation lawsuit. I’m also worried they could be sued to reveal the names of people who spoke to them anonymously in the course of the investigation.

This was devastating for the investigators, who really really wanted to publish the detailed writeup of the situation, and ever since they’ve been exploring avenues to safely do so. REACH is in the process of getting approved as a 501©(3) nonprofit, which might open up some options for REACH, not the individual investigators, to be the subject of the liability. I know of a community member who has personally generously offered to pay for liability insurance, and so maybe there’s potential in that direction. But as of this moment, the only things that it will definitely be possible to publish without exposing both investigators and sources to risks we simply cannot ask them to take on are:

1) Whether bans have been issued barring participants from the REACH or conditionally barring them (note that even if allegations are found warranted, this might not happen; for example, a ban is much more likely if the victim also attends REACH and wants to be sure they won’t encounter their abuser there, or if the allegations involved misconduct at REACH or at another community resource, or if the accused has sought out new relationships at REACH in which harms later occurred)



2) Any statements that the accused, accuser or other parties want made public



3) An explanation of the process by which the panelists were selected and the process which the panel used in the course of their investigation.