[Foundation-l] Interesting legal action

[Sarah]

On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 15:14, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> 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.
>
Yes, it's similar to "dead tree standard," except not applied only if
a BLP subject requests deletion, but applied across the board. It
would solve our BLP vanity article issue too.