-----Original Message----- From: wikien-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of geni
Firstly lets not forget this is all in reaction to the [[Pippa Middleton]] article which is based on a wider range of sources over a longer period of time and who quite clearly exists. In any case Britain has royal watchers in much the same way it has train spotters so sourcing is not much of a concern.
Existence is not really the point. The point is that reliance on newspaper sources is incredibly dangerous - even when a wide range is used. For example, on Pippa Middleton, see my critique of this section, which was a careless pastiche of terrible newspaper stories. http://tinyurl.com/5s6hoxa
The problem is that our metric for keeping an article is that multiple sources exist. No one ever seems to consider whether the sources are adequate for a reliable biography, but once the article exists people need the need to fill it out, and so they use google to find every passing mention and make as much of each as they can.
Secondly if you think that this is limited to BLPs and newspapers you are
sadly mistaken.
Nothing is ever limited to anything. But the use of newspapers to write bios of celebrities, where no proper biographical sources exist is particularly pernicious.
The difference is I'm able to document this without a WP:POINT violation.
Writing an essay to make a point is not a violation of WP:POINT - although I'll admit creating this as an article at the start was a little silly.
Scott