[WikiEN-l] let's be honest then

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

On 3/31/07, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/31/07, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > "I was heartbroken and nauseated almost to the point of vomiting about
> > the last two lines"
> >
> > These are the words of an e-mail I dealt with today - and they are not
> > untypical. Without breaching confidentiality I can say little more. But
> > it related to a biography which, without any citation, commented on an
> > individual - making outrageous (and quite probably libelous) claims
> > about certain activities.
>
> Did you check?
>
> > On behalf of wikipedia and the community, I apologised and assured the
> > complainant we took such things seriously and were working to ensure
> > they didn't happen. I may have lied.
> >
> > Perhaps a more honest reply would have been:
> >
> > "We're sorry you had to complain about this. Regrettably that's the
> > price you pay for our determination to retain as many articles as we
> > can, even though we can't currently maintain most of them. You see, if
> > we change things we might upset some of our editors who might have some
> > of their unreferenced articles deleted by mistake. Basically, we're more
> > concerned with that type of collateral damage than with wrecking your
> life.
>
> Someone whose life is wrecked by a Wikipedia article THEY THEMSELVES
> CAN CORRECT has bigger problems than the entry itself.
>
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Not if we lack the eyes to ensure the material they fix (or ask to have
fixed) doesn't return.

Mgm