[Wikipedia-l] Re: link for complaints

[Sean Barrett]

Anthere stated for the record:

> 
> 
> Sean Barrett a écrit:
> 
>> David Monniaux stated for the record:
>>
>>> I think that all Wikipedia pages should contain somewhere (say, at the
>>> bottom) a link to a page where people could complain about the content
>>> of the articles. (I'm talking here of complaints about breach of
>>> privacy, copyright violation, libel etc.)
>>
>> Thank you for volunteering to handle all these complaints promptly and 
>> without pay.
> 
> That might not be *exactly* the right time to tell him that, after he 
> spent several days on such an issue :-)

Touché.  My point, on the other hand, remains that having a /official/ 
complaint channel incurs the liability -- the legal obligation -- to 
handle those complaints in a reasonably prompt and effective manner. 
The vast majority of those complaints can be properly handled by 
replying "go away, kid, you bother me," but occasionally someone will be 
seriously offended, and the resulting lawsuit will name the Foundation, 
Jimbo Wales, twenty John Does, ... and everyone who responded to the 
complaint, even if though they were completely well-meaning.  And since 
they were responding to a complaint submitted through an official 
channel, their response will be official -- they will be acting as an 
agent of the Foundation.

Newbies get bit around here far too often.  Biting a newbie with a 
legitimate legal complaint through an officially approved channel is a 
recipe for disaster.

--
  Sean Barrett     | We all hate poverty, war, and injustice,
  sean at epoptic.com | unlike the rest of you squares.
                   | --"The Folk Song Army" by Tom Lehrer