On 4/13/07, andy.dyer9(a)tiscali.co.uk <andy.dyer9(a)tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
Precisely. If the encyclopedia allows such articles to
be posted, then
it opens the door wide open for abuse. Years later that woman or her
husband may be standing for election or campaigning against
environmental damage or fighting corruption or whatever. Her wealthy
opponents can blackmail her into silence, and thereby badly damage
democracy, by the use of Wikipedia.
Um, blackmail requires a SECRET. If it's posted to Wikipedia, it's
pretty much by definition no longer a secret.
Besides, if Wikipedia finds out about it, it wasn't a secret anyway.
Especially if it gets kept under our content policies, since we
require reliable sources.
Keeping things off Wikipedia doesn't protect against this kind of
stuff - a determined opponent digging dirt. The question is whether
we should be protecting people against the casually inquisitive, not
the determined.
-Matt