On 7/31/08, WJhonson(a)aol.com <WJhonson(a)aol.com> wrote:
In a message dated 7/31/2008 3:12:05 AM Pacific
Daylight Time,
wikimail(a)inbox.org writes:
Why is libel tolerated on the talk pages in the
first place? I don't
see many people arguing for noindexing the project pages because of
libel.>>
----------
It isn't. This is just a tired old horse that keeps getting trotted out by
those who want to destroy the transparency that others have to constantly
fight
to keep.
Some people don't like the idea that what they say today, can be compared
to
what they said last year, and that this can be done by anyone with the
persistence to dig.
Any true libel, can and is, removed as soon as it's found. However in the
U.S. "you can't libel garbage by saying it stinks" and opinions are not
libel,
so instead you get smoke screens like this trying to confuse the
evidence. And
we operate under U.S. laws no matter what craziness Britain institutes :)
Will
As I understand your position, it is that as a matter of principle,
petty disputes among Wikipedia contributors (many of whom edit under their
real names), as well as negative remarks about subjects of deleted articles
and the like, should not only be preserved on Wikipedia itself, but they
must remain readily available as top Google hits for the people in question,
presumably in perpetuity. This position is not defensible.
It remains entirely unacceptable for the best-known and most popular
participatory website in the world to treat people in this manner.
There are very legitimate and debatable questions about the
precise demarcation of where the no-indexing codes should and should not be
used, as well as precisely what technical features should be implemented to
use them. However, I have seen no seriously reasoned objection here
or elsewhere to the no-indexing of the varius RfA, RfAr, XfD, and
BLP/N pages and their archives that was apparently implemented some time
ago. Now, at a minimum, to the extent it hasn't been already, this should
be extended to DRV, AN/ANI/AN3, SSP, RfCU, WQA, and the old CSN and PAIN
archives, all of which can rightly be regarded as pages for the
resolution of internal Wikipedia issues whose searchability outside
the project is plainly going to continue doing far more harm than good.
Newyorkbrad