[WikiEN-l] Lies, damned lies, and statistics

[wjhonson at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:24 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Lies, damned lies, and statistics

I've found the "to improve Wikipedia" clause in various rules to be an 
odd
loophole.  Usually it gets abused in BLP and privacy discussions: "that 
helps
the individual named in the BLP but doesn't improve the encyclopedia".  
The
idea that we must improve the encyclopedia is *not* a blanket excuse to 
avoid
our responsibilities to get things correct or not to cause harm.

In fact, this is almost the same as the BLP and privacy abuses.  Sanger 
is a
particular named individual that Wikipedia is making claims about.  He 
says
the claims are wrong.  It's up to us to get them right, whether it 
"improves
the encyclopedia" or not--and if getting them right doesn't improve the
encyclopedia, what are we doing making *any* claims about *anyone's*
founder status?

(Moreover, Sanger has pointed to particular things he claims aren't 
true,
above and beyond the founder/cofounder issue.)
---------------------------

I didn't get the impression that he was complaining here about 
Wikipedia, but rather just about Jimmy.  I looked at the article and it 
seemed to present them both as co-founders.

I think Larry was just complaining that Jimmy, as an individual person, 
has been saying this or that about him or about the early history of 
the project that Larry didn't like.  Not that those things have been 
incorporated into the project.

Will Johnson