[WikiEN-l] Self-sensorship, how far should it go?

[Steve Summit]

Fred Bauder wrote:
> But is there anything to it? Or is it just nasty gossip?
> If you want to gossip, join the Navy.

There's a fine line to be trodden here.  Certainly, we don't
want or need to dignify wild rumors with any attention at all.
But once a story "has legs" (and whether it deserves them or not),
too-strenuous attempts to deny it only fuel the speculations that
there *is* a cabal and a cover-up -- and those speculations can
end up driving more long-term damage than the original, spurious
accusation would have.

A single, simple statement on Slim's user or talk page, saying
that the rumor is false, would be much better than all this
rampant reverting by ElinorD, Jayjg, and Crum375.  (And there may
have been other reverters, sorry if I left you out, but evidently
this issue has become so "serious" that [[User talk:SlimVirgin]]
has had a bunch of its history deleted.)