At 06:09 PM 5/26/2003, you wrote:
I was going to start doing this myself, but I figured
it'd be better if
people talked about it first, and more effective if they knew about it.
Instead of blanking articles why not replace the article text with a
redirect to a boilerplate text with something along the lines of "The
content of this article is being disputed. It has been blanked for the
time being, though older version are still accessible through the Page
History. It may have been blanked because of blatantly false information,
or non-encyclopedic garbage. This article may be awaiting [[votes for
deletion]], or awaiting a sysop to delete it. Please use the Talk Page to
discuss this dispute if necessary, and check [[Votes for Deletion]]"
I wouldn't recommend that exact text be used, but basically, my idea is to
redirect articles to a boilerplate text explaining what's going on rather
than just blanking them.
That way, Googlers and people who located the article in the index or
search function will know what's going on.
Sounds reasonable enough to me. I support such a policy.
-----
Dante Alighieri
dalighieri(a)digitalgrapefruit.com
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their
neutrality in times of great moral crisis."
-Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321