David Gerard wrote:
From Danny:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/business/media/25asktheeditors.html
You should all read this (you need to log in, but these things
happen). It answers a pile of relevant questions for Wikipedia:
notability, how to write a good bio (our best bio articles would a
well-written obituary, whether the person is alive or not), research
... fantastic stuff.
Here are some good bits which are applicable:
We will not publish an obituary until we can confirm
the death.
Someone reliable has to tell us so-and-so is dead — a family member,
a family spokesperson, a hospital official, a business partner,
someone.
...
A Times affiliation is no longer an automatic ticket
to the
Obituaries page. In fact, as a general policy, we now set the bar
even higher for Times people, precisely because we want to avoid even
the appearance of favoritism. The thinking now is: You had better
have done something special at the paper, or elsewhere, if you want
to be buried beside kings, captains of industry and Nobel laureates.
...
When we look to see whether someone had made a
newsworthy impact in
some way — who "made a wrinkle in the social fabric," as Margo puts
it — we don't equate significance with fame. In point of fact, 9 out
of 10 people we write about are indeed not household names (the 10th
is — a movie star, a secretary of state). But that doesn't negate
their importance. Most made their marks in quiet ways, out of the
public limelight, but they still made a mark, possibly on your life
and mine.
...
How do you measure impact? How do you determine
significance? Not
with a ruler or any other device. We use the only tool we have
available: our judgment, informed by years of experience in
journalism, lifetimes of reading, an awareness of the world, a sense
of history.
...
Probably more in there, but that will do for now.
--
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