[WikiEN-l] Advice needed

[Delirium]

Guy Chapman wrote:

>People insist on the article, clamour for the picture, and revert edits 
>which emphasise Peppers' status as a big-time loser in the lottery of life - 
>possibly because I can't write these edits in a way whihc adequately coneals 
>my absolute contempt for those who exploit Peppers' picture ad an object of 
>derision.
>  
>
I think it would be a very bad precedent to start deleting (or avoiding 
creating) articles on people who are semi-famous against their wishes, 
or even exclusively as the result of mean-spirited internet denizens.  
The most well-known of such unfortunate victims of internet derision is 
the [[en:Star Wars kid]], who even went so far as to sue the people who 
leaked the now-famous but previously private video onto the internet.  I 
don't think that means we ought to delete his article, though.

Mr. Peppers appears to be less well known than the Star Wars kid, of 
course, but having a Snopes entry seems to rise to the level of being 
semi-notable IMO.

We *do* have to be careful not to allow Wikipedia to be used as a place 
to start new fads, or propagate very weak/minor ones, but I'm wary of 
taking an ideological stance that we will refuse henceforth to write 
articles on people who would prefer to be less known than they are.

-Mark