[WikiEN-l] An example of a bad biography

[Tony Sidaway]

2008/4/29  <WJhonson at aol.com>:
> Saying that things in BLPs "hurts people" only furthers the idea that that
>  is what we're avoiding.  It's a simplistic approach to a complex  issue.
>
>  Things that we re-report, summarize, etc in BLP's is sometimes going to  hurt
>  people.  We've been over this ground before.  Not only people who  do stupid
>  things (like murder, rape, etc.), but people who are mentioned  nationally
>  doing embarrassing things as well.
>
>  Our mission is not to protect people from themselves.  That is *their*
>  mission.
>  Our mission is to rely on reliable, verifiable sources to tell the public
>  what *is* going on.
>
>  Hiding half the world, from the world, does not help our project.  It  makes
>  us look like censors.
>

We're censors.  That is a necessary part of writing an encyclopedia.
Yes, we've been over this ground before, and every single time we come
down to this: we are not here to make things worse.  We are not here
to push out trash.  We are not here to rub our own stupidity into the
wounds caused by somebody else's.