On 12/15/05, charles matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote
And yet there's no such
requirement when adding a claim about a living person that could potentially damage them. That discrepancy suggests we have our priorities upside down.
No libels or slurs are welcome on Wikipedia. That said, the risk of blandness in dealing with live people is very real. We _must not_ give people the right of approval on what WP writes about them.
Charles
Showing them what we write about them and then listening to their response wouldn't be such a bad idea, though.
Unsubstantiated rumors aren't welcome on Wikipedia either. We're lax about it in some cases, but in terms of potentially damaging information we shouldn't be. I'd respond to slimvirgin that Wikipedia:Verifiability already gives editors the power to move unsubstantiated information to the talk page (at least after a good faith effort to locate a source). We just haven't been exercising that power as often as we should.
Anthony