George Herbert wrote:
Someone who has a WP article about them that they
percieve negatively
may be upset, but it's one thing to say that we sympathize with them
being upset, and quite another to suggest that we shouldn't have an
article about them, or about large classes of people including them.
Gosh, you really don't get it do you?
We're not talking about Brandt and mildly critical stuff on a
well-written and highly monitored article. We are talking about
downright libels, negative spinning, and outrageous lies. We are talking
about biographies that have pulled together every detail of a minor
small-town scandal, and ignored any positive information whatsoever.
People have an absolute right not to be subjected to that
"WarmFuzzyPedia" or not.
We insist on NPOV BLP and V, but we are hosting thousands of biographies
that do not comply with these policies and we have structures that have
manifestly proven inadequate in dealing with them.
If we host bios - we have a duty of care to the subject. We are clearly
in breach of that duty.
Yes, people don't get 'take down rights' in the real media - but real
media is produced by writers with real names and by publishers who take
legal responsibility, not written by ten year olds or clever anonymous
people with a malicious grudge and then published by non-responsible
foundation.
People have a absolute right not to have their name googled and find
that the highest ranking site (or perhaps only internet information on
them) has been written by a silly slanderous schoolkid, their
ex-husband's angry girlfriend, or a disgruntled ex-employee or rival out
to trash them. And often these subtle attacks are on the face reading
well-referenced and seemingly factual. Never spotted as simple vandalism.
People have a right not have to check their own biography for hatchet
jobs, and if they they do check it, and there is one, they have an
absolute right to expect us to have a means of making sure it never
happens again.
If Wikipedia can't reasonable insure that people don't have these rights
infringed, then it has no business hosting their biographies in the
first place.