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

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

On 4/9/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 4/8/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com>
> wrote:
> > Slim Virgin wrote:
> > > Along the lines of "John Smith is a British schoolteacher who
> > > came to public attention after being discovered on the floor naked
> > > during a geography class, having asked his pupils to draw a map of
> > > Europe on his genitals."
> >
> > > The point is that no news organization or encyclopedia would publish a
> > > biography of the geography teacher just because of that one incident.
> >
> > Well, if a news organization isn't reporting it, we're not including it.
>
> They might report the incident. They wouldn't rush off to write a
> biography of the person on that basis alone.
>
> >   That seems to be a valid standard to work with in terms of biographies
> > of living people, even if we go way too far with it already.  We're more
> > than your standard encyclopedia, and we cover what's possible to cover.
> >   If John Smith is in the news, he's notable and we should consider
> > inclusion.
>
> You seem to be saying we should have a biography on every single
> person who has ever been in the news.
> >
> > > We're currently asking the question "Why shouldn't Wikipedia publish
> > > biographies on everyone for whom reliable sources can be found?" but I
> > > think we should turn that on its head and ask "Why *should* we, given
> > > that no else does?"
> >
> > Because we're better than everyone else, and we're better than to cow to
> > the demands of our subjects.
>
> Well, another way of looking at it is that it's because we're worse
> than everyone else, and that we don't listen to our subjects'
> reasonable requests.


Affecting the coverage of an encyclopedia by requesting material to be
deleted. is not reasonable. Fixing errors and protecting articles that prove
to be continuing problems is reasonable. Deletion is similar to sweeping the
problems under the rug or into your neighbours garden. We should address the
problems instead of deleting them entirely or ignoring their existence.

Mgm