[WikiEN-l] Human dignity

[Anthony]

On 7/17/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> For me, the amusement at the cute story (woman calls 911 to ask for a
> date) was seriously impaired by my distaste for the fact that this poor
> woman's name was being brought into the matter globally and on the
> Internet and against her will, in a way that makes it somewhat likely
> that future googling on her name for the next 30 years will bring this
> incident, and only this incident, to the forefront.
>
You know, when you put it that way, maybe it would be better if this
woman had a Wikipedia article.  At least then Wikipedia could do a
better job than the average newspaper story.

[snip to another email]

> I think taking into account human dignity as one factor among many in
> our editorial judgments can go either way depending on the specific
> case.  In the case of Brian Peppers, there is certainly a good argument
> to be made that having a thoughtful, NPOV article about him, including
> as much verifiable information as possible, can be a healthy antidote to
> the juvenile mocking we have seen in this meme.

Absolutely.  Of course that can't happen as long as the system
continues to be overriden by your edict.  And no, don't bring up that
there was already an AfD - that AfD was on completely different
content from the new article.

> In other cases, I think that human dignity points us in the other
> direction.  The fellow in the Seigenthaler incident does not deserve to
> have a standalone article about him with this one tiny fact of what is
> likely an otherwise exemplary life turned into the #1 google hit for the
> rest of all time.  (I think the current solution is fine, by the way:
> the article about him is redirected into the Seigenthaler incident
> article, therefore reporting the context.)

Chase is a much better example than the other two.  But you know what,
the current solution is terrible when it comes to what you're calling
"human dignity".  If it wasn't for Wikipedia mentioning his name and
making that redirect, the guy wouldn't have *any* hits on Google.

Frankly, his name is irrelevant, even if you do think that [[John
Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy]] is a valid
encyclopedia topic.

If we want to be decent, and respect the guy's privacy, let's take his
name out of Wikipedia completely.  The one line description of him
that's currently on his article (a disambig page) literally *is* one
tiny fact out of his life.  Sure, someone doing more research would
still be able to find out the name, but it won't be in the top google
hit.

Anthony