----- Original Message ----
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)wikia.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:09:22 PM
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Borderline notable bios (yes, again)
If you read something negative about someone, and
there is no source,
then either find a _legitimate_ source (and make sure that WE do not
make the negative claim, but rather than we merely report neutrally on
what the claim is), or just remove it... and insist that anyone who
wants to put it back, do so with a legitimate source!
--Jimbo
Jimbo and others,
I've been struggling with what to remove and what to keep on certain Living Person
biographies that are on my watchlist. Most of them are athletes and finding the line
between encyclopaedic writing and fan cruft is difficult. (It's not difficult for me
to see, but it causes friction when you try to remove statements like the following and
the "fan" that wrote them thinks they are perfectly okay.)
From one article:
" ... he had another fine
season ..."
" ... bounced back with another quality season ... "
" He was also one of the best players ... "
" ... the season was an unqualified success ... "
" The news came as a shock ... "
" The trade request was harshly received by Edmontonians ... "
None of those statements is sourced in any way. And I can find at least that many similar
statements in several articles on my watchlist. Can I delete all that on the spot? If
it's "positive" can I mark it with [citation needed] and leave it alone?
Sue Anne