[WikiEN-l] Defamation policy hypothetical

[David Gerard]

On 19/08/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:

> I do. For barely notable people, information in Wikipedia could have a
> disproportionate effect on their life. We should be aware of that, and
> behave accordingly.


That should be a consequence of doing a good editorial job, not a
driver of it - that way lies Sympathetic Point of View, not Neutral
Point of View. We must *avoid* implying SPOV.

A useful heuristic is to take notability down to the detail level,
i.e. is this fact really notable? The example in one of the many
versions of WP:LIVING was a minorly notable scientist who happens to
have had a messy divorce. Unless the messiness was itself notable,
it's not likely to make it a better article for the reader.


- d.