[WikiEN-l] Slashdot article

[Nathan]

Out of genuine curiosity, which among you believes that you will be able to
convince any of the others with whom you are debating this issue?

One side says "If someone edits an article claiming to be the subject, or
posts to the talkpage, and disputes a factual claim in the article - we
should assume in most cases that the editor is in fact the subject and
either remove or limit the impact of the claim in dispute."

The other side says "If someone edits an article claiming to be the subject,
or posts to the talkpage, and disputes a factual claim in the article - we
cannot assume that the editor is in fact the subject, and we should limit
the impact of the claim in dispute and attempt to verify the counter claim."

These two points of view are not that far apart, but the difference lies in
the level of trust in humanity (specifically humanity through the Internet)
held by the two groups. You aren't going to reconcile that sort of
difference using a mailing list - not least because on one side, you have
people inclined not to trust essentially anonymous people on the Internet.
The good news is that everyone agrees that controversial information about a
living person should be well sourced or removed from any article on
Wikipedia.

Nathan