[WikiEN-l] deleting unsourced articles ..... gradually

[Joanne Benson]

On 3/31/07, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
<snip>
> It isn't a panacea, but it is a start - and it begins a process of
> making inclusion dependent on article quality and not just the
> notability of the subject. We need a thin end to our wedge here -
> something workable and broadly acceptable to our more inclusionist
> elements. Thoughts?

There's a lot of value in this proposal, especially regarding the
biographies. I think that we've proven on numerous occassions that, as
this point in time, Wikipedia as a whole just simply isn't able to
build decent biographies on most living people. There are several
exceptions of course, articles that are well sourced and balanced. But
the majority? We simply don't seem to have have the right procedures
or ways of thinking in place that make *sure* that we don't mess up -
and biographies are NOT an area that we should be experimenting in
like there are no consequences. I've handled and seen plenty of OTRS
tickets that show the effects of where we're failing at the moment -
and it isn't pretty.

So, we'd delete an unsourced bio after a week. Where's the harm? If we
delete, and kindly explain to the creator of an article like that that
we need sources, and why, they shouldn't be too upset. Especially as
restoring if someone can provide decent sources for what they wrote
can be done with one single click...

We need to re-educate our current and new editors - but we can't be
too 'soft' about this any longer - it has real life consequences too
often.

Kind regards,

JoanneB