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

[Fred Bauder]

You are describing original research. Putting together information you have gathered from various sources and creating a sort of biography. But it is a pseudobiography, without substantial reference to the person described, except as they have received incidental media coverage. A golem you yourself have breathed life into.

Fred

>-----Original Message-----
>From: MacGyverMagic/Mgm [mailto:macgyvermagic at gmail.com]
>Sent: Monday, April 9, 2007 05:48 AM
>To: 'English Wikipedia'
>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Fwd: Opt Out for Not So Notable Biographies
>
>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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