On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:50 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 29 August 2010 18:44, Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.com wrote:
On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:29 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I ask again: if the case came to you that one side was saying "we must do this to the article because someone with a financial interest asked us to" and the other was saying "we are an encyclopedia and this is an NPOV issue", what would your thinking be on the matter?
Sure, there may be a financial interest, but there can be an altruistic motivation as well. I agree we are an encyclopedia and need to include the ending, but I'm not convinced that spoiler *notices* are a NPOV issue because NPOV applies to the article text, not to disclaimers. For both the Stig issue and this one, there is (or will be, depending on a court case) coverage of this in reliable sources, so presumably the articles now mention this in some fashion, and that will serve as a de facto spoiler warning within the text of the article (as long as it appears before the ending or identity is revealed). In both cases, there has been independent commentary and coverage of the "secrecy" aspect of this, so saying within the article that XYZ have objected to the ending/identity being reveled, is a requirement of NPOV.
You've mischaracterised the present issue: they want the ending kept secret, not in the article at all.
Also, my question did not posit press coverage, so please do answer the actual question, as to what you would do if the issue were an OTRS request to leave information out of the encyclopedia, versus NPOV. As an arbitrator, your thinking on this matter is actually a relevant consideration.
That could get confusing in a thread titled "Wikipedia committee member". Since this is not actually an arbitration matter, I am going to leave this until it actually becomes the subject of an arbitration case (if ever). Until that point, such issues need to be resolved by community discussion. And I'd like to add that I don't appreciate being repeatedly asked to speak "as an arbitrator" on a mailing list where I participate more as an editor than anything else. Hopefully others will be able to answer your question for you.
Carcharoth