[WikiEN-l] Accountability: bringing back a proposal I made nearly 2 years ago

[Anthony]

On 3/5/07, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> On 3/5/07, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> > The point is to make sure that people are being honest with us and with
> > the general public.
>
> I would modify the proposal: You only need to verify the credentials
> if you're in a position of trust (adminship or higher).

There are two parts to the suggestion: 1) marking some statements with
a "verified credentials" tag, and 2) a "policy of gentle (or firm)
discouragement for people to make claims like those that EssJay made,
unless they are willing to back them up".

So is your modification that part 1 would be available to everyone,
but part 2 would be only necessary for admins?

This could be seen to some extent as an extension of policy that is
already in place.  Recently a user came to the unblock list because
she was blocked for using the name of a college professor.  She was
given the choice to verify that she was indeed that college professor,
or to create an account under a different username.

Anthony