On 3/11/06, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 3/11/06, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
It is not just about legalities, but also about common human courtesy and good customer service. If you are thinking of this as "the foundation against the community" then you're not thinking of it in the way that I'm thinking of it, so let me explain further.
The people we are writeing articles about are not customers.
Perhaps that isn't quite the right word, but they're living people with whom, by choosing to write about them in our encyclopedia, we have initiated a relationship.
We owe them a moral duty to be factual and fair, and this duty also jibes well with our aim of writing a great encyclopedia.
In the interests of the encyclopedia, we should also take reasonable steps to avoid any problems in our relationship with them escalating to the point where they completely lose confidence in our willingness to listen to their complaints. We could, after all, be in the wrong. Being the number one reference site in the world packs a sting, both ways.
Wikipedia is not a news site, it has no deadline. We can afford to put things away temporarily in order to facilitate discussion. Takedown is not only a recognised way of responding to legal complaints, it's also very good practise in public relations even where there are no legal issues.