[WikiEN-l] Brandt, bios, and other thoughts

[Philippe Beaudette]

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: James Farrar 
  To: English Wikipedia 
  Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 4:47 PM
  Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Brandt, bios, and other thoughts


  On 20/04/07, Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin at gmail.com> wrote:
  > Posted on behalf of Musical Linguist, at her request:

  > The argument for deleting it is that it's the decent thing to do, and
  > it might stop the stalking.

  "Might" isn't good enough, I'm afraid.

  > An argument against deleting it is that
  > he's notable enough to *permit* inclusion. He is not notable enough to
  > *require* inclusion. We would not lose credibility as an encylopaedia
  > if the article were gone.

  I don't recognise degrees of notability beyond the binary state of
  "notable enough to have an article" or "not". Talk of degrees of
  notability are unhelpful because you could be faced with a question of
  "where do we draw the line?" - we already have that line.

  Deleting an article because the subject wants it deleted would set a
  terrible precedent. What do we do in the future if someone else wants
  their bio deleted? If we delete this one, we must delete all bios on
  request.


  ------------------
  Hmmm... no, I don't buy that. - I don't buy that this is precedent setting, even were it to happen.  I simply don't think any argument that includes "we must...." is ever acceptable.

  We can choose to delete for minor notables, and not for major notables.  It adds a layer of decision making (who decides who's a major notable and a minor notable?), but that's not insurmountable.  Frankly, I also don't buy that there are no levels of notability.  Sanjaya, say, is notable today, but will he be in five years?  50 years?  Whereas, Charles Darwin is notable forever.

  Philippe