On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:50 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 29 August 2010 18:44, Carcharoth
<carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:29 PM, David Gerard
<dgerard(a)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