In a message dated 10/22/2008 6:14:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time, snowspinner@gmail.com writes:

Actually, in my understanding, EB generally hires an expert to write an article and leaves it at that.>>

--------------------------------------- Somewhat. And yet they do issue corrections pages. So how do you square that?

The problem here is the use of the word "error" and "correction" and so on, in biographies. If your mother says "He was always a naughty child" and YOU say "No I weren't" What are we supposed to write?

Typically in a biography you write... both, and quote who said which. That is what divorces biography from say mathematics where presumably there is one single correct version of any issue. (more or less).

If, after some use of a source, it's generally found that it often contradicts other sources which more-or-less agree with each other, we might be led to think that source unreliable. If you can think of some better methodology for how to write biographies, than what we have, state it.

However believing that some anonymous editor is actually Jaron Lanier and he should be allowed to willy-nilly change his own biography, isn't going to fly. **************Play online games for FREE at Games.com! All of your favorites, no registration required and great graphics – check it out! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1211202682x1200689022/aol?redir= http://www.games.com?ncid=emlcntusgame00000001)