[Foundation-l] Interesting legal action

[MZMcBride]

Sarah wrote:
> On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 14:33, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>> I think anyone who has been in the "BLP trenches" has had the same thought.
>> The reality is that an encyclopedia without a "Barack Obama" article or a
>> "Nelson Mandela" article really isn't a general reference encyclopedia, or
>> at least isn't a very good one. The issue is making a reasonable distinction
>> between those types of individuals and everyone else.
>> 
> We could solve that by hosting only BLPs that have already had
> encyclopedic or extensive treatment elsewhere, i.e. have already been
> the subject of (a) an encyclopedia article; or (b) a book or book
> chapter from a reliable publisher; or (c) a profile or in-depth piece
> in a high-quality newspaper (one about the person, not about events
> the person was involved in).
> 
> I know this has been suggested before, but it's coming time to
> consider it seriously.

That sounds vaguely similar to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BLP_problem#Dead_tree_standard>.

Let me know if you start a Requests for comment/discussion about this. I'd
be interested, as would a number of other list participants, I imagine.

MZMcBride