[WikiEN-l] An example of a bad biography

[Delirium]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> The victim of the bad biography in this case did nothing to deserve the 
> insults that were flung at him by the vandals.  I am not suggesting that 
> we hide embarrassing things done by various people, not report honestly 
> on murder cases, etc.  All of that has absolutely nothing to do with 
> what we are discussing here.
>   

What's the pressing issue here, though? As far as BLPs go, I'd put 
"juvenile vandalism" pretty far down the list of things to worry about. 
People who have been accused of serious but unfounded things have a 
legitimate worry about Wikipedia damaging their reputations by repeating 
libels or half-truths. It's particularly damaging if the article looks 
authoritative---well-written, good formatting, footnotes duly inserted, 
etc... but highly biased and libelous. On the other hand, a union leader 
being called "a douchebag" by a random person on the internet, with bad 
grammar and the offending juvenile insult removed a week later, doesn't 
suffer particularly great harm. Heck, someone temporarily vandalizing 
[[clinical depression]] with "LOL UR AN EMO FAG" probably has more 
potential negative real-world effect.

-Mark