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

[FT2]

He hasn't been complaining about the presentation of the issue in the
encyclopedia, but about the stances and conduct of individuals (as he views
it) outside the editorial realm.



The reason many here are dismissive is not that these claims are or aren't
without merit, but that they are irrelevant to the aim or the project, which
is not to resolve who gets how much glory or criticism, but to write neutral
encyclopedic content pages in a collaborative manner and leave other issues
outside the door - a goal which renders the entire issue largely pointless
to many experienced editors, unless some actual mis-balancing of an actual
encyclopedia article is in the frame.



FT2






On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Apr 2009, James Farrar wrote:
> > > 3. Is debate about Sanger's and Wales's respective cofounder/founder
> claims
> > > regarding Wikipedia a worthwhile endeavor?
> > Not here. It doesn't help us develop and improve the English Wikipedia.
>
> 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.)
>
>
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