[WikiEN-l] Harassment sites

[William Pietri]

Will Beback wrote:
> We redact personal 
> contact info from BLPs because we respect our subjects, and we shouldn't 
> include links to self-published sites that are harassing Wikipedia 
> editors because we respect our editors.
>   

Well, at least we agree that respecting editors is good. However, I deny 
removing links to an entire site is the same universally respectful 
thing that not publishing some biography subject's phone number is.

When external sites have posted crazy things about me, on-Wikipedia 
linking of that was helpful in one case, and would have been welcome in 
the other. Informed support from colleagues is a much greater source of 
strength to me than that of people who might have the hazy impression 
that somewhere, someone is doing something bad.

Further even when redaction of entire sites might respect the individual 
editor's wishes, it's not clear to me that the wishes of one editor 
involved in a kerfuffle should automatically override respecting the 
good-faith needs of other editors.

I also think you are neglecting both the reader and our public image in 
this question. Putting a subject's phone number in an article doesn't 
serve the average reader, and would make us look like idiots. Removing 
an otherwise useful link will reduce our value to readers and likely 
harm our public image.

I understand you feel strongly about this, but when your every comment 
on the topic shows only positive spin, I find it hard to give your views 
much weight. Perhaps you could try a more balanced approach?


Thanks,

William

-- 
William Pietri <william at scissor.com>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri