Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
On 20 Apr 2007 at 20:42:24 -0600, Bryan Derksen
<bryan.derksen(a)shaw.ca> wrote:
Would blocking Google and the other major search
engines from spidering
Wikipedia satisfy you? I'd rather see that tried before implementing
some sort of blanket ban on biographical articles.
That seems like a version of the infamous Brandtian argument that
free speech should only be permitted if not *too* many people
actually get to hear you; it's OK to be free in what you put in a
website, but you'd better not let the search engines index it too
well so that you get a big audience for what you say.
Mind you, I'm not actually saying I like the idea myself; IMO it's the
slightly less worse of two bad ideas. I think Wikipedia is doing just
fine in the libel department as it is, and will probably be doing even
better once version flagging is in. I was mainly just trying to
determine the basis of doc wikipedia's specific objection.