From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Jimmy Wales
Steve Bennett wrote:
I see we have still made little progress in deciding why exactly we want to have rules on notability, or what notability means in the Wikipedia context. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I do note that many others seem to have very different views on why
certain subjects
should or should not feature in Wikipedia.
For what it's worth, I feel we should begin by posing ourselves the question: How likely is it that someone will come to
Wikipedia looking
for information on this topic. On Peppers, I would say "fairly likely".
That is certainly one question we should ask.
Another question is: does human dignity matter at all?
On sober reflection, unless we are publishing articles on ALL lowgrade sex offenders (and what Peppers is listed as doing seems to rank very low on the scale of such things) then by having an article on him, we are singling him out for demonisation and ridicule based on his looks. Sure, he's notable after a fashion, but the casual reader might conclude that if we have an article on Peppers, busted for forcing his affection on somebody, and not on Joe Blow down the street just released after twenty years inside for rude things with great aunts and fluffy white ducks, then we must know something they don't. Particularly looking the way he does.
It's no great step to find his address on the Ohio database thing, and before we know it we have crowds of the Wikicurious lurking outside his house and dogging his steps when he goes shopping so as to get a photograph for GFDL uploading. "For the good of the encyclopaedia. We're here to write an encyclopaedia. Moral behaviour and civic responsibility take second place."
Do we really want people to be Wikipediaed in much the same way as websites are routinely Slashdotted?
Peter (Skyring)