[WikiEN-l] BLP - a case study

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

He's notable for his academic work. His personal life should be briefly
mentioned if at all. "He divorced his wife in a messy court battle" (or
however you say that neutrally). The details are not important to an article
about him.

Mgm

On 3/28/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Doc Glasgow came up with this, and I said I'd post it here for feedback...
>
> Basically, we have an issue with the biographies of living people
> where - by the simple act of repeating published and verifiable
> information - we can give a vastly misleading impression about them;
> we report their drunk-driving conviction at 19 in the same tone and
> length as we report their Nobel prize. Oh, it's verifiable and true...
> but should we be publishing it? Editorial common sense says, perhaps,
> no.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons
>
> Anyway, a thought experiment. I would be very interested to know where
> people think we a) should be drawing the line; and b) *are currently*
> drawing the line...
>
> ----
>
> Let's take Professor John P. Smith, the ninth-most leading Australian
> contributor to the field of marine bioscience. He's written a few
> books, say, and he's notable (if barely) for it and his impact on the
> field.
>
> 1) Now, he gets divorced in messy circumstances - his wife accuses him
> of sleeping with her sister or something. it is all there is the
> on-line court reports. Do we include it?  No - and perhaps court
> reports should not count for BLP sourcing - if it isn't in the
> mainstream media ignore it.
>
> 2) OK, now, although Dr Smith isn't that notable to a world-wide
> encyclopedia, he is fairly notable in  Smalltown NSW, where he once
> served as an alderman. So the Smalltown Gazette runs the divorce
> story. Now, do we include it? If we do, we are responsible for taking
> a local story to global level - we are essentially promoting it.
> Usually, if Dr Smith moves to NZ, people will only know of his shining
> academic career - not his divorce. But if it makes Wikipedia - it will
> follow him about. Perhaps we should exclude information based only on
> local press from BLP sourcing.
>
> 3) OK, now supposing the Sydney Herald is running a story on 'sex and
> stress in academia', and they use the story for the Smalltown Gazette
> to illustrate it? Do we allow it now? It is still the same crappy
> story.
>
> 4) And what if the Sydney Herald get the story wrong, and claim he DID
> sleep with HIS sister - and he sues them. Do we report the libel case
> in his biography?
>
> How do we write policies that deal with this?
>
> (Disclaimer: Real people were not harmed in the making of this case
> study. Any resemblance to actual events or persons (or their sisters)
> living or dead is purely coincidental)
>
> Doc
>
> ----
>
> Thoughts appreciated.
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk
>
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