-----Original Message----- From: Ray Saintonge [mailto:saintonge@telus.net] Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 01:27 AM To: 'English Wikipedia' Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] defused timebomb
Pedro Sanchez wrote:
I just blanked, and deleted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_people_responsible_for_a_death
We had names of many famous people, stating they were responsible for someone else dying. ** Not a single reference **
I was told that I should have AFD it instead
The potential for libel was huge, afd was likely to come as no consensus or delete. Wikimedia can't take the risk of being sued for the sake of process.
So I deleted the entry to hide history, and drop a note stating should anybody readd content it must be with references.
Probably many people will complain and ask for my head, just telling you people why I did it.
That sounds terribly unilateral. AFD would have been more prudent. Altering the title would have been more sensible, given that some were apparently only accused, and never convicted.
I don't know how long the list was but being a "list" it should be enough if there are sources on the listed pages themselves. Nobody puts sources on the index or Table of Contents of a book, because the sources would already be at more appropriate places.
The "huge" potential for libel is a product of your imagination. I'm not saying that there is none at all, but it is certainly much less than what you imagine. In any event, other ways of fixing the article would also have eliminated that problem. I don't know when the page was started but its talk page has been there four months; there was no urgency.
The chronic bad blood in the deletion process is precisely because of people who take drastic and sudden unilateral action when they could have taken the time to think of softer ways of dealing with a problem.
It would be a peaceful gesture if you restored the page, and initiated alternative solutions.
Ec
I looked at the deleted material. Most entries are not controversial. However, all entries on the page fall under Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and may thus properly be deleted by any person without limit. This is a case where a user has taken responsibility. They should be commended.
Fred