I'm making a point of replying to this before I
read any of the other
responses to avoid being tainted by them.
Sue Gardner wrote:
* The editors I've spoken with about BLPs are
pretty serious about them –
they are generally conservative, restrained, privacy-conscious, etc. But I
wonder if that general attitude is widely-shared. If Wikipedia believes (as
is said in -for example- the English BLP policy) that it has a
responsibility to take great care with BLPs, should there be a
Wikipedia-wide BLP policy, or a projects-wide statement of some kind?
The English Wikipedia is probably the worst offender. Until that is
sorted out a Wikipedia wide policy is premature. The qualities at the
beginning of you paragraph are important, but a level of common sense
also needs to be applied. In unbalanced criticism any individual
comment may be perfectly valid when viewed in isolation. The problem is
with the effect of restating details, or the injudicious use of
adjectives in places where they don't enlighten.
I doubt your statement "The English Wikipedia is probably the
worst offender." has genuine statistical evidence behind it. But
no doubt it can't be far behind from the worst.
I do think your instinct about policies not being panaceas is
likely accurate though. It isn't policy change (or regime change :)
wikipedia projects need. It is contributor culture change. And
that is hardest to bring about.
Yours,
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen