Andrew Gray wrote:
On 13/05/07, Todd Allen
<toddmallen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
plenty of people that have gotten in trouble for
lying about where they
went to school, and a -ton- of people that lie about their age.)
The single most common specific OTRS complaint is "please correct my
date of birth"... I can't offhand think of any who've asked us to
correct which university they went to - at least, none where it might
have been wishful puffery. (There have been a couple who wanted us to
fix that we had them down as attending a prestigious university they
didn't, but I don't remember any the other way around)
In the absence of credible alternative information, one should begin
from a position of assuming good faith on the part of these people when
it comes to basic biographical data. Sometimes there will be
controversies, but one should not assume that there is controversy.
Otherwise reliable sources can make innocent mistakes, and those become
copied by other reliable sources until the wrong information dominates
the sources. By the time the subject notices the source of the original
error may no longer exist, and nobody can determine where the idea came
from.
In the extreme case the subject may be willing to fax us documentary
proof of the facts, but since this is contrary to the claims of an
overwhelming majority of "reliable" sources we find this proof
unacceptable. I really would like to poot in a good word for good
judgement, and being able to evaluate between some poor sap that's just
trying to set the record straight and another that's trying to elevate
his own reputation above reality. Inevitably, our judgement will be
wrong about some of them, but probably less often than blind acceptance
of "reliable" sources.
Ec
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In that case, the subject would do better by both himself and us by
-having the sources correct themselves-. Reputable sources will be
willing to publish corrections if you can show them they're wrong. And
in that case, all the erroneous material out there is corrected. Now,
I'd have no problem with us simply refraining from mentioning the
particular issue at all while the subject attempts to get it sorted. But
we shouldn't just "take someone's word for it", especially if reliable
sources specifically say otherwise. Have them get the sources to
correct. They have a lot more involved fact-checking facilities then we do.