[Foundation-l] Request for your input: biographies of living people

[David Gerard]

2009/3/3 Matthew Brown <morven at gmail.com>:

> I see no reason why having an article on someone need include
> information not published in reliable sources.  If they're well-known
> for something in the public eye but details of their life elsewhere
> are not prevalent, then that's how our article should be as well.


This will promptly become a "your source is great"/"no yours sucks
mine rules" battle. When we started requiring references, that became
the target of the querulous. And everyone is convinced the term
"reliable sources" is actually (a) objectively definable (b) invariant
for all topics.

And never mind that people who know about the construction of ontology
and how it works usually have a degree or two in the subject, I'm sure
a bunch of people who've been on a wiki for a few months can make up
something that passes all muster, and if it doesn't then reality is
wrong. And the New York Times is gospel, but anything in the subject's
own blog must be first assumed to be a tissue of lies, and the subject
themselves buried in initialisms.


- d.