On 5/5/05, Josh Gordon joshua.p.gordon@gmail.com wrote:
This fellow is one of the pure ones. A wee bit of research shows he's been threatening to sue anyone who suggests he is anything other than brilliant for a decade or so.
If we're going to have an article on alt.usenet.kooks, it makes sense to report on what they do...
Josh, the problem is that we could use Usenet to ridicule any number of people simply by creatring an article about a Usenet group, and then saying we're only reporting what it does.
The problem is not only whether we'd be sued (though that's a consideration), but also a question of fairness. WP articles should strive to be well-referenced, balanced, fair, and encyclopedic. Repeating a claim that a named individual was called a kook by a bunch of anonymous Usenet posters is none of those things, and if he says it's hurting his reputation and business, we ought to respect that and just get rid of it. When it's repeated by the New York Times, we can stick it back in again.
It starts to look like bullying, whether the kook award was justified or not.
Sarah