[WikiEN-l] An example of a bad biography

[Andrew Gray]

2008/4/29  <WJhonson at aol.com>:
> Saying that things in BLPs "hurts people" only furthers the idea that that
>  is what we're avoiding.  It's a simplistic approach to a complex  issue.

It is, however, a very accurate approach to describe situations where
all we are doing is republishing abuse and insults!

Let's run through these again.

"...is a supreme douchebag"
"...is a Class A cock-smoker with a terrible set of plugs"
"You're a dickhead ... You sound like a whiny jerk who just loves to
have his little media moments"
"...eats babies"
"...is a self serving jack-off"

It is really a bit misleading to give the impression that being
against this sort of tripe is "hiding" things or somehow making us
"look like censors".

Of course we don't want to conceal things or to pander to people who
get upset because we fail to burnish their haloes... but this isn't
anywhere near one of those cases. This is us acting as a carrier for
abuse, plain and simple gutter abuse, and not doing anything about it
- nor, indeed, did we even seem to *notice* it in any organised sense
at the time.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
 andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk