[WikiEN-l] Jimmy Wales should reconsider

[doc]

> On 4/21/07, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>> For biographies of living persons, a "majority to delete (taking into
>> account sock puppets, and taking into account the number of edits of
>> those participating in the discussion" shall be sufficient to delete.
<snip>
>> We can think creatively about that, rather than engaging in rhetoric
>> about shutting Wikipedia down. :)
>>
>> --Jimbo
> 
I think this is positive. Such a shift would effectively over time 
reduce the number of low-notability and dubious bios we have - allowing 
us to focus attention on the rest. Low-notability bios are the problem 
as 1) they are often the only information on the subject 2) they are 
normally underwatched. 3) not enough people know about the subject to 
spot problems, imbalances and lies.

At the same time, this solution leaves the community firmly in control 
and avoids silly decisions that delete things because technically the 
sourcing doesn't fall into category x. Each article gets discussed on 
its merits.

Indeed for those who are concerned about community and democracy, this 
is a shift towards democracy.

I'd word it:

"For articles on the biographies of living people, deletion shall 
require only the clear balance of the debate in its favour - which shall 
  normally consist of support of at least the majority of users 
expressing a relevant opinion"

The notion that such a policy would 'break' wikipedia is ridiculous. It 
would clearly empower the community to solve some of the issues and not 
the reverse.

And even if this solution doesn't take, it shows that there are rational 
alternatives to the status-quo. No need to shut the wiki down yet.