[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia:News suppression (was: News agencies are not RSs)

[Ken Arromdee]

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009, Apoc 2400 wrote:
> Some would say that we need no rule for this as we have IAR. However,
> Wikipedia:Ignore all rules is about ignoring rules when they prevent
> you from improving the encyclopedia. 

I've complained about this for some time (to no avail).  IAR may be short,
but it's not free of loopholes, and when a loophole in it is used, it's
almost always this particular one.  Usually it comes up in privacy situations
rather than life endangering ones, but it's the same loophole: IAR only lets
you ignore rules in order to improve the encyclopedia, helping someone's
privacy doesn't improve the encyclopedia, therefore, you're not allowed to
use IAR for that.

Perhaps a change to IAR.  Of course, most people who propose changes to IAR
quickly get shot down because the rule is supposed to be simple.  But here
I'm proposing a change which *widens* the rule, while most proposed changes
not only complicate it, but narrow its scope.  "If a rule prevents you from
improving or maintaining Wikipedia, or otherwise doing what's right, ignore
it."  I understand the desire not to turn IAR into paragraphs, since that
defeats its purpose, but it seems to be needed here.  "Otherwise doing
what's right" is still a vague term, but no more vague than the rest of IAR,
and it would plug the loophole, not just here, but for privacy and BLP
issues in general.

I also think that this situation is a blatant case of *not* applying IAR
(unless you think the rule being ignored is "don't lie about the reliable
sources rule").  Actually applying IAR instead of abusing other rules
would have been much better.