[WikiEN-l] Borderline notable bios (yes, again)

[Sue Reed]

----- Original Message ----
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:09:22 PM
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Borderline notable bios (yes, again)

> If you read something negative about someone, and there is no source,
> then either find a _legitimate_ source (and make sure that WE do not
> make the negative claim, but rather than we merely report neutrally on
> what the claim is), or just remove it... and insist that anyone who
> wants to put it back, do so with a legitimate source!

--Jimbo



Jimbo and others, 

I've been struggling with what to remove and what to keep on certain Living Person biographies that are on my watchlist. Most of them are athletes and finding the line between encyclopaedic writing and fan cruft is difficult. (It's not difficult for me to see, but it causes friction when you try to remove statements like the following and the "fan" that wrote them thinks they are perfectly okay.) 

>From one article: 
" ... he had another fine season ..." 
" ... bounced back with another quality season ... " 
" He was also one of the best players ... "
" ...  the season was an unqualified success ... " 
" The news came as a shock ... "
" The trade request was harshly received by Edmontonians ... "

None of those statements is sourced in any way. And I can find at least that many similar statements in several articles on my watchlist. Can I delete all that on the spot? If it's "positive" can I mark it with [citation needed] and leave it alone? 

Sue Anne