[WikiEN-l] School Districts and notability

[Ray Saintonge]

Will Beback wrote:

>Charlotte Webb wrote:
>  
>
>>On 5/22/07, Angela Anuszewski <angela.anuszewski at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>My earlier reading made me consider whether or not school districts
>>>are notable simply because they exist, or some more significant event
>>>or achievement should be required to create or retain an article on the
>>>subject.
>>>      
>>>
>>If a wealth of verifiable information about a school or district...
>>
>>If information exists, somebody will add it. Try not to be too quick
>>in completely writing off certain topics. Stub templates exist for a
>>reason.
>>    
>>
>The inclusion of non-notable schools is not, by itself, the problem.
>
I'm glad you see that.

>The real problem we have on Wikipedia with school articles, in my 
>opinion, is the amount of vandalism they receive relative to the number 
>of editors repairing them. Since school-aged kids are a main source of 
>vandalism this isn't a surprise. However since this vandalism often 
>takes the form of derogatory remarks about living people it's a serious 
>matter. Reducing the number of school articles which aren't being 
>watched would help.
>
Vandalism is vandalism, so let's not quibble over which kinds are worse 
than others.  When you let the vandals effectively dictate the policies 
that will be applied to the large majority of conscientious editors, 
including those of school age you have effectively lost track of the 
purpose of the project:  to build an encyclopedia.  Those with that kind 
of siege mentality are as much a part of the problem as the vandals they 
purport to combat. It means that the honest contributors have to watch 
out not only for the vandals, but to the paranoid clique that is 
constantly undermining their efforts to start new articles.

Perhaps the school articles aren't being watched enough.  If so then 
time would be better spent finding ways to watch them instead of arguing 
with people who want such articles.

>I tried "prodding" a vandalized article about a junior high school and 
>found that there are editors who watch the PROD category just to remove 
>school articles. While I appreciate that the matter of school notability 
>is hotly debated, I don't think anyone likes having hundreds or 
>thousands of school articles that are unattended targets of libelous 
>vandalism. Other than reducing the number of school articles I don't see 
>a good solution. Perhaps a compromise would be to favor merging school 
>articles into school district articles.
>
What evidence do you have that there is such a huge proportion of school 
articles being vandalized?  You are using completely unfounded 
hypotheses, and believing them because they suit your purposes.

Ec