--- Guettarda guettarda@gmail.com wrote:
Kate - my feeling would be to remove the information from the talk page. There seem to be a lot of complaints about material on talk pages because search engines can find them. If it looks really bad, the edit history might be worth removing too, but as long as it's on the talk page it's likely to remain an issue.
What? Have you forgotten WINASCO... 'Wikipedia Is Not a Self-Censoring Organization.' The notion that the threat of libel claims requires us to be proactive in removing material is entirely based on a misconception of what Wikipedia is, how it works, what its value is, and what the stakes are.
WP is a living, breathing, global information dispensation entity --one which is open enough that any claimed repsonsibility or accountability for its content must fall to everyone to correct; including those who may be implicated by material in it.
Noone complains if an article on some video game character be less than encyclopedic. And nor should they; quality gravitates can be found in more important articles, and conversely, less quality may be indicative of a substantial lacking in importance.
By inadvertently giving Siegenthaler a wide berth, WP may have gained a friend who can speak for old generations of people may not quite grasp the concept. Conversely this may have also left ourselves open to solicitations from various forms of legalistic hackery from people, or people's secretaries, their lawyers, etc. There are no shortage of lessons to come of this, and perhaps thats the point. IAC, this notion that we have to delete comments on talk pages (against etiquette no doubt) is overreactive and misguided. IMHO.
Stevertigo
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