On 5/5/05, Josh Gordon <joshua.p.gordon(a)gmail.com> wrote:
This fellow is one of the pure ones. A wee bit of
research shows he's been
threatening to sue anyone who suggests he is anything other than brilliant
for a decade or so.
If we're going to have an article on alt.usenet.kooks, it makes sense to
report on what they do...
Josh, the problem is that we could use Usenet to ridicule any number
of people simply by creatring an article about a Usenet group, and
then saying we're only reporting what it does.
The problem is not only whether we'd be sued (though that's a
consideration), but also a question of fairness. WP articles should
strive to be well-referenced, balanced, fair, and encyclopedic.
Repeating a claim that a named individual was called a kook by a bunch
of anonymous Usenet posters is none of those things, and if he says
it's hurting his reputation and business, we ought to respect that and
just get rid of it. When it's repeated by the New York Times, we can
stick it back in again.
It starts to look like bullying, whether the kook award was justified or not.
Sarah