[WikiEN-l] WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 45, Issue 215

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 21-Apr-07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:

> There isn't going to be a firm line, but a good rule of thumb would be
> that the greater the role of Wikipedia in increasing the subject's
> notability, the more we should incline toward deleting the article on
> request.

There's much to be said for that.  Ideally, Wikipedia should be like 
the [[Watcher (comics)]] in the Marvel universe, observing and 
chronicling what goes on in the real world but not intervening in it; 
it's not our job to make somebody more or less notable, but merely to 
report on their notability as it exists independently of us.  
However, if any of you are Marvel Comics fans, you know that [[Uatu]] 
the Watcher has violated this principle on many occasions, 
intervening in the development of the universe despite his oath not 
to.  Merely providing some of his gathered information to others who 
are partisans in various battles amounts to intervening just as much 
as going into the fray himself.  A principle of staying apart from 
the "real world" and not intervening to affect its development is 
something that only works as an abstract principle, not in practice; 
in reality, saying or doing anything at all has the potential to 
affect how things come out even if you're trying hard to stay apart 
from things.  The experimenter's actions influence the behavior of 
the subjects he's trying to study.

So, given that we are a part of the world, and are big and 
influential enough that despite it being contrary to our principles 
to assist in making somebody notable it has sometimes happened 
nevertheless, the problem then is whether we are subsequently bound 
by our principles to accurately reflect the notability of somebody 
who has become notable primarily because of past actions of ours that 
perhaps broke our principles.  It can be a tough dilemma.

-- 
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