Abe wrote:
First, Hemanshu brings up a potential POV
problem: "do we want endless
arguments over whether America influenced the Taliban; George Bush
influenced oil markets; oil influenced Gulf war.... to name a few?"
To avoid this, there is one rule: an influence must already be
present in
the article to be made an "influence link". This way, only assertions
that have already passed the wiki test are admissible.
That doesn't work. If people disagree on whether X influenced Y, our
NPOV policy dictates that the article should state, "People in group
ABC tend to believe that X influenced Y, but other people tend to
disagree". Your "influence links" can't do that: They are either there
(asserting a definite influence) or not (asserting a definite lack of
influence).
We've said nothing yes of negative influences like "I saw the damage
that the company was doing to the land, and that influenced me to become
an environmentalist."
Ec