Nathan wrote:
There is yet another deletion debate ongoing about a BLP article, but I think this is by far the highest profile BLP anyone has tried to delete simply because the subject is upset about the content. So far, the hyperbole has focused on how Wikipedia is theoretically causing harm to this individual. I can't see it. This is a high profile guy who seems to consistently angle for an ever higher profile, with a great deal of coverage in the press and a very significant talkpage presence aimed entirely at keeping the article in line with the BLP policy. If we don't report anything that hasn't already been written by a few very mainstream newspapers, how are we causing harm? All of the information is readily available, and anyone who searches for his name will find both the Wikipedia article and every critical article every written about him.
So he's a very wealthy lawyer and today he posted a document that purports to be a letter to the WMF auditing firm, and the letter claims that he has filed cases against a group of editors, the individual members of the Board, Wikimedia Foundation and even Wikia. Let me ask, then. No one who has been editing the article is unaware of the risk in this case, so for whose benefit do we capitulate to his threats? Do we really want to get in the habit of deleting articles of fairly famous individuals based on a threat? You'll note that the current complaint is pretty baseless. He was happy with the article a few weeks back, and hardly a single thing has changed about it since then. It is only the risk of having a group of editors on the page who aim to create a truly representative article that has caused him to step up the pace of intimidation. I think that is what we ought to want, but apparently others disagree. So if there is a new consensus about this, I'd like to see someone add it to WP:BLP.
Nathan _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Perhaps we should centralize this comment/discussion on the AFD instead of decentralizing it to the discussion AND list. Would you consider duplicating your comment there? It makes sense, I think it would add to the discussion.
Warmly,
Jon