[WikiEN-l] Biography of Living persons

[Andrew Gray]

2008/12/29 Joe Szilagyi <szilagyi at gmail.com>:

>> Correct. Opt-out will violate NPOV.
>
> I think opt-out more than flagged, more than semi, more than anything
> else would be fought to the death over by some extremists. But I don't
> know if it would violate NPOV. Is an absence a violation?

Philosophically, it probably wouldn't violate NPOV. *Practically*, it
might well - as was pointed out upthread, anyone who has on balance a
negative article would be more likely to ask for it to be removed than
anyone who has one which is on balance positive.

In many ways, the most effective solution would be a hard-and-bright
line like the DNB uses - no-one who is alive, end of story, and we
could deal with living people as tangential notes in their work. But
it certainly wouldn't be popular!

I remember talk of ja.wp having a more hardline definition of
notability, roughly defined as "is a public figure", thus neatly
eliding anyone who isn't Pretty Damn Famous - any idea if they still
hold to that and if so how it works out?

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk