[WikiEN-l] The problem with flagging things with {{office}}

[Kirill Lokshin]

On 4/20/06, James D. Forrester <james at jdforrester.org> wrote:
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> Using the {{office}} template to tag problem content is a nice idea,
> but, I would imagine, has a rather serious drawback: Wikitruth.info
> (amongst other 'helpful' critics) seems to have a sysop working for
> them. Were we to flag an article that was libellous with {{office}}, you
> can bet that they would go and dig out the deleted sections, and repost
> it to their wonderful service. Now Wikimedia has been informed that they
> are likely to be sued, and in response has done something knowing that
> it would increase the publication and spread of this libel. - we're then
> liable for their reposting of the content, and "utterly screwed". I
> know, I know, "that's not what was intended". Well, tough, that's the
> way the Real World(tm) works.

Maybe a further way of obscuring deleted content would be helpful
here?  Something where the deleted revisions could not be viewed by
all administrators?  I have no idea how difficult this would be to
implement, though.

Alternately (or in addition to that) we could crack down on whatever
admins are leaking removed content; this wouldn't entirely solve the
problem, but might decrease the practical risk of something like this
happening.

Kirill Lokshin