[WikiEN-l] Deletion of unreferenced living person biographies

[Tony Sidaway]

On 9/8/09, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/9/8 David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com>:
>> Gut it of all unreferenced material, per WP:BLP. Leave it a day. PROD
>> it. See if it survives.
>
> BLP doesn't actually let you do that. It only allows for removal of
> unsourced contentious material. Mass proding will likely get you
> blocked under the disruption clause.
>

It is a common myth that the biographies of living persons policy
doesn't permit you to remove unreferenced material.  This can already
be done under the verifiability policy--with any article, let alone
biographies.  You absolutely should remove stuff that looks like it
was made up on the spot--which accounts for a large part of many of
our more slight biographies.

For example, we wouldn't want to leave an unsourced statement such as
"X was made with the help of a grant from the World Health
Organisation" in an article on documentary film X, even though that is
a far from contentious statement.  Why would we leave in "An expert
bassoonist, Y has performed with the Royal Philharmonic" unsourced in
a biographical article about nuclear physicist Y, whether the subject
was living or dead?

"Mass proding" hasn't been suggested.