[WikiEN-l] Proposal: limited extension of semi-protection policy

[Delirium]

David Gerard wrote:
> Can I propose it then?
>
> 1. Category:Living people can be added to an article by anyone; the
> software prevents anyone not an admin from removing it.
> 2. Being in that cat makes an article semi-protected.
>   

This rests on the assumption that living people are uniquely 
problematic.  I disagree.  It is true that incorrect (especially 
libelous) information about a living person generally will cause more 
harm than the same about a dead person.  However, there are many 
articles in which incorrect information will cause much more harm than 
incorrect information in most of our living-person articles will (most 
of the latter are obscure and rarely, if ever, actually read).

For example:
-- Articles on nations
-- Articles on ethnicities
-- Articles on religions
-- Articles on controversial topics in history
-- Medicine-related articles

Do you really think libel about some obscure living person is worse 
than, say, incorrect information in [[suicide]], [[cocaine]], or 
[[Basque country]], so much so that it's worth taking special measures 
for the category of living people that aren't taken for any other 
category of article?

-Mark