[WikiEN-l] Easter Bradford

Sat Aug 9 09:31:32 UTC 2003

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <wikien-l-request at wikipedia.org>
To: <wikien-l at wikipedia.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2003 8:08 AM
Subject: WikiEN-l digest, Vol 1 #577 - 16 msgs

> Send WikiEN-l mailing list submissions to
> wikien-l at wikipedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> wikien-l-request at wikipedia.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> wikien-l-admin at wikipedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of WikiEN-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Easter Bradford (Jimmy Wales)
>    2. Re: Wikipedia Shepherds (Daniel Ehrenberg)
>    3. Re: Easter Bradford (Christopher Mahan)
>    4. Re: Wikipedia Shepherds (Toby Bartels)
>    5. Re: I give up (Toby Bartels)
>    6. Re: Easter Bradford (Steve Vertigo)
>    7. Re: Watchlist (james duffy)
>    8. Re: Watchlist (Erik Moeller)
>    9. Re: Watchlist (Steve Vertigo)
>   10. Re: Watchlist (Brion Vibber)
>   11. Re: Watchlist (Erik Moeller)
>   12. Re: Watchlist (Brion Vibber)
>   13. Re: Watchlist (Ray Saintonge)
>   14. Re: Watchlist (JFrost8401 at aol.com)
>   15. Re: Watchlist (Brion Vibber)
>   16. Re: Watchlist (Erik Moeller)
>
> --__--__--
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 07:24:55 -0700
> From: Jimmy Wales <jwales at bomis.com>
> To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Easter Bradford
> Reply-To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
>
> Graham Burnett wrote:
> > Someone with an axe to grind keeps inserting POV stuff into
> > http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bradford and accusing anyone who
makes
> > any changes/reverts of being a 'liar'. Personally I've never even heard
of
> > Easter Bradford, but could somebody else cast an eye on this before I
get
> > drawn into an edit war about something I couldn't even care less about?
>
> I would say that the bulk of that entry fails the confirmability test.
> It does appear that someone with an axe to grind is doubting the
> veracity of the information given, and without some independent
> sources, my feeling is that the article should be removed or at least
> cut back to a stub of confirmable information.
>
> I just said the same thing on the talk page, and probably this
> discussion can just continue there, as there's not really a policy
> issue just yet.  Policy nerds such as myself should take note of this
> as a good example for future discussions of people editing articles
> about themselves.
>
> My general feeling is that it is almost always a social faux pas to
> write an article about yourself.  It's nearly always a faux pas to
> even edit such an article, although if someone else wrote an entry
> about you (and I'm not talking about a buddy that you put up to it!)
> I suppose it wouldn't be horrible to step in and correct factual
> errors.
>
> To me there's a certain unsavory braggadocio involved in proclaiming
> oneself to be worthy of an encyclopedia article.
>
> --Jimbo

Hi Jimbo- I have to say that when I first noticed the page I had no idea
that Easter Bradford was a wiki contributor, I'd never heard of him, I just
noticed POV and potentially libelous material was on the page and edited it
to make it less POV and libelous. It wasn't until a little later that it
become clear that there were actually two people engaged in an edit war (or
more like a cat fight!) on the page, and it was me who protected it,
although I realied with hindsight that perhaps this was a wiki faux pas as I
had actually been involved in editing. It was even later that  I realised
Easter Bradford was in fact a wiki contributor, and was probably one of the
parties in the edit war.

I'm tempted to revert the page back to the last edit by a 'trusted person'
(ie, logged in contributor apart from myself), which, IIRC, was camembert.
However being the person who for better or worse locked the page, it might
be better if somebody else did that?

I really don't have an interest in the page one way or the other though in
terms of it's content apart from that it conforms to wiki standards, (NPOV,
not libelous, accurate, etc, etc)

Cheers Graham (Quercus robur)