[WikiEN-l] Anonymous quote in article

Thu Jan 23 12:51:14 UTC 2003

This seems better suited to a /Talk page?

Erik Moeller wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> there's a problem with the article [[Madeline Amy Sweeney]], about a victim
> of the Sep 11 attacks. This started out as an anonymous contribution:
> 
> "Amy was a wonderful person to wrok with. She inspired me to enjoy my life,
> work hard and have fun with my job as an American Airlines Flight Attendant,
> because it was the best of the best."
> 
> It was expanded, and the quote was removed. Oliver Perreira and Tom
> Parmenter have insisted on keeping that quote in the article. The latest variant used
> by Oliver is this:
> 
> --
> The Wikipedia article on Madeline Amy Sweeney was started on November 28,
> 2001, with the following anonymous sentiment:- "Amy was a wonderful person to
> wrok with. She inspired me to enjoy my life, work hard and have fun with my
> job as an American Airlines Flight Attendant, because it was the best of the
> best." 
> --
> 
> A new contributor named Arno also wants to keep the quote in, with the
> remark "SPECIAL NOTE". Because he is encouraged by Tom and Oliver, he is now ready
> to start an "edit war".
> 
> My position is that, however touching this may be, there are several reasons
> not to have the quote in the article:
> 
> * We have a precedent here. On [[Wilson Flagg]] we have kept the comment on
> the Talk page and linked to it, with the link name "Tributes and Comments".
> * The anonymous quote is unverifiable. I could easily come along and add
> another, similar quote to the article under an anonymous IP. Should that then,
> too, be included because of its sentimental value? Or does the first quote get
> priority because it was "the quote that started this article"? In that case,
> can I come along and add new articles about Sep 11 victims with fake
> anonymous quotes that are destined to remain in them forever?
> * Any self-reference of the type "The Wikipedia article .." is
> non-encyclopedic to the extreme and should be avoided whenever possible.
> 
> In conclusion, I think it is obvious that we should keep the anonymous
> comment on the Talk page, and not in the article. It would set an extremely bad
> precedent if we allowed these kind of unverifiable comments in articles. I'd
> like to hear more opinions on, preferably on the Talk page of the article 
> [[Madeline Amy Sweeney]].
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Erik
> 
> -- 
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