[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] Board statement regarding biographies of l...

[WJhonson at aol.com]

Several times it has happened in the five years that I've been in-world, 
that people have contacted me to make changes in their own biographies, once 
they've gotten stymied in the process.

I have never once, not one single time, assumed they were the person in 
question.  I always verify, independently who they are, through some official 
channel.  For example, a radio host, can be verified by finding the official 
site for the radio station, checking for that person in their listings which 
frequently will have an "email me here"  button and you can confirm the 
email addresses are the same or something like that.

There are always ways to fool any system, but doing nothing to verify 
identify, on controversial issues,  is a good path to creating more problems, not 
fewer ones.

The funniest one, was when a BLP on a highly-charged pseudo-historian was 
in conflict and the subject contacted me, not to actually fix it, but to do 
genealogical research *for him*.  I never really figured out whether he knew 
that I was the main culprit in making his biography neutral and forcing out 
the hagiographical details.  But I made fifty bucks so I'm not complaining.

Will Johnson




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