[WikiEN-l] "Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement"

[Carcharoth]

On 4/17/12, George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why would you not find yourself in a similar situation if employed by
> a published scholarly encyclopedia and were told "This guy is just
> notable enough, write a brief bio of him for the next version"?

The difference is, there is (usually) an intermediary between the
article author and the article subject, such as an editorial board or
editor. On Wikipedia, the contact is more direct, and that isn't good,
IMO. If you wanted to complain to a newspaper about an article, would
you feel more comfortable talking to the journalist who wrote the
article, or to his or her boss? There is probably a case to be made
for article subjects who want to raise objections to be directed
*away* from article talk pages, and to be told to go to OTRS first.
Maybe they are told that, I'm not sure where the documentation is. But
direct interaction between the subject of an article and the authors
of an article just doesn't sit right with me.

Possibly you have to have actually had an article written about you to
understand that. That won't happen to me any time soon, but the people
to talk to are those with articles who object in principle. I'm
surprised no survey has actually been done along those lines yet.

Carcharoth