[WikiEN-l] Human Dignity

[Daniel Marvin]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>But imagine if someone were to write a Wikipedia article using precisely
the (daft, if
>you ask me) arguments that Anthony DiPierro has been using.  It is a
>confirmable story, we do know a number of fairly trivial facts about
>her, and... we might imagine... this *could* become an idiotic short
>lived meme among the immature segment of the under-17 crowd on the
>Internet, as did Brian Peppers.

>Should we therefore have an article?  Let's assume that we can verify
>the story easily enough.  (Maybe one newspaper keeps its archives online
>for free... maybe a dozen blogs pick up the story.)

>I would vote "delete, nn - human dignity".  A full explanation would be:
> For goodness sake, leave the poor woman alone.


As a relative newcomer to the mailing list, after following the "Borderline
Notable Bios (yes, again)" thread for several days, I respectfully believe
that articles like Brian Peppers and the woman named in the AP story have
not place in Wikipedia, and I wish to make a two points in this regard.
First, Wikipedia certainly should not be a sex offender registry, because
all but a handful of states pay good money to maintain online sex offender
registries. Nor should Wikipedia become a police blotter (as Sydney pointed
out).  I doubt it is prudent to allow a felony conviction alone establish
notablility, becuase considering that more than a million people are
currently imprisoned in the United State, just creating and maintaing
articles on all convicted felons would likely consumed vast amount of
Wikipedia editorial resources.

-Danntm