[WikiEN-l] Fwd: Opt Out for Not So Notable Biographies

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

A newspaper article usually goes into detail about a specific event.
Biographies discusses a person's entire life.
If you require someone to already have a published biography, it looks like
you want to delete articles which can be written based on multiple newspaper
sources rather than one biography. (Either that or we have some semantic
issues again). Thing is, Wikipedia is often the only place that bothers to
put all the biographical info about someone in one place. Just because no
one collected the info before doesn't make them any less notable. The info
is there. We need to judge notability one what someone did. If someone wrote
about them, it provides the sources. But the way that was done has no
bearing on their notability.

Mgm


On 4/9/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 4/8/07, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at waterwiki.info> wrote:
> > >From: Thomas Dalton [mailto:thomas.dalton at gmail.com]
> > >Define "Not so notable". If you can do that well, then this idea might
> > >have merit, but currently it is far too vague and will just result in
> > >arguments over notability, rather than over content.
> > >
> >
> > Not so notable is the rough dividing line between public figures and
> those who are not. George W. Bush is a public figure as as most of those who
> regularly appear in the media. Those whose doings are not ordinarily covered
> by the media are not public figures, although something interesting may have
> happened to them and there has been spot coverage.
> >
> One way to determine notability sufficient to justify a Wikipedia
> biography is whether that person has already had a biography published
> by a reliable third-party source, either in a form of a newspaper
> article or a book. If we were to adopt a "no first biography"
> criterion, it would ensure not only that our subjects are truly
> notable, but would also help to ensure accuracy, because we'd have a
> published biography to base the Wikipedia article on.
>
> Sarah
>
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