[Foundation-l] Request for your input: biographies of living people

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Ray Saintonge wrote:
> 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