[WikiEN-l] Re: Articles about ourselves

Wed Nov 5 18:29:57 UTC 2003

Jimbo wrote:
>Ed Poor removed that line with the comment 
>"(moved self-serving ...  text to talk)".  And of 
>course since then, famously, you two have 
>been  at each others throats. 

I'm almost certain that would have happended even if Mr. Rampton did not have 
an article. Ed and Sheldon's politics are very much opposed to one another 
(in an already almost hostile way) and they have clashed on several different 
articles. 

>Let me say it another way -- it isn't so much the 
>conflict-of-interest that's a problem, it's that personal 
>courtesy prevents people from editing an article about 
>you that you've edited yourself, with the result being an 
>entry that is not encyclopedic. 

Personal courtesy be dammed! If it is in the article space then it is fair 
game for NPOVing and fact-checking (in no way should the same courtesy 
extended to user pages be transferable to the article space just because the 
user happens to be famous enough for an article). Also, the very fact that a 
person who is very closely involved with the subject in a POV way has edited 
the article sends POV-warning signals to me. So if I saw somebody editing 
their own article, then I would be extra suspicious of their edits. 

But that is just me. 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)