[Wikipedia-l] Biographies of unimportant people (was: "In memoriam")

Thu Sep 26 10:39:30 UTC 2002

Axel Boldt wrote:
> First, I see an encyclopedia as a compendium of all human knowledge that
> is interesting or useful to a significant number of people. My dream last
> night, and the fact that I keep my notebook in the right drawer of my
> desk, are both stored in my brain, so they are part of human knowledge.
> They are interesting/useful to me, but not to anyone else, therefore they
> don't belong in an encyclopedia. A biography of an unimportant person is
> interesting/useful to almost no one, therefore it doesn't belong either.

I am sympathetic to this idea, though not wholly convinced that it
would be a good idea to try to formulate policy around it.  Where do
we stop, and why?

How about the mayor of New York City?  Famous enough.  How about the
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia?  Probably.  Mayor of Juneau, Alaska?
How about the city councilpersons?

It seems that virtually every college town (all the ones that I lived
in) has _the_ local semi-professional permanent activist/student.  These
folks are always making the news locally.  Why not an article about them?

It just seems very hard to me to be able to draw any particular line.
Many professors are well-known and important _in their field_, but
completely unknown otherwise.  Most authors are unknowns, but some are
not.

> Second, facts about unimportant people are not checkable. I could write
> that my father once fell from a horse, and no one could ever disprove this
> false claim. If an important person falls from a horse, it leaves a trail.
> 
> Third, and related, it is impossible to write a biography of an
> unimportant person from a NPOV, since essentially only the very partial
> point of view of the immediate family and friends exists.

That's probably mostly true, but then again, if an article just sticks
to the basic facts, it should be fine.

My grandmother is not a famous person.  Yet, she founded a private
school that existed for many years and had a great impact on many
people in her community.  If you were writing a history of that
community, then if it was sufficiently detailed enough, you'd want to
include her story.

--Jimbo