[Foundation-l] Greetings, Wikimedians

[James Hare]

Of course we'd have a disclaimer. Quite an apparent disclaimer -- perhaps in
MediaWiki:Sitenotice. I wouldn't allow it any other way, nor would the
wikilawyers. I think having a disclaimer that the information we present is
merely background information, and professional advice is like 350 times
better, would help us be safe (and help them from hurting themselves).

On 6/19/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>
> James Hare wrote:
>
> >That's what's so hard.
> >
> >My plan has been to have a protected mainspace and editable drafts that
> >weren't obvious to the public eye, but that was denounced as unwiki.
> Having
> >a freely-editable website, however, introduces us to extreme liability
> and
> >would make Jimmy Wales's head explode if it were to happen.
> >
> >What we need is a middle ground -- one that's not awfully anti-wiki but
> >should keep us pretty safe.
> >
> Your proposal would likely increase our exposure to liability, not
> decrease it.  As long as the public is _clearly_ informed that the
> information in a medical article is not necessarily the product of
> professionals we are probably better off than if we gave people a false
> sense of security about the reliability of the articles.  Remember too,
> how people interpret such written material often has no relation to what
> was actually written or what the author intended.  Do not underestimate
> people's capacity to misread information, and use that as a basis for
> starting a lawsuit.
>
> Ec
>
>
>
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