[Foundation-l] breaking English Wikipedia apart

Mon Mar 14 13:15:55 UTC 2011

On 14 March 2011 12:51, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:

> Currently such pages tend to be locked to all but admins. That doesn't
> work either - people just keep on their fighting on the talk page
> until someone gives up, after which the page is unlocked and their
> opponent can declare their victory on the page. Or the fight simply
> moves to the next page.

Note that this is already a problem with BLPs. The rules apply not
just on the articles named after living persons - but to statements
about living persons anywhere in the encyclopedia, and even on talk
pages. This is precisely because those who mistake the encyclopedia
for a venue for activist journalism have an observed tendency to
continue their fight wherever they can.

Putting the BLPs elsewhere will move the battle to other pages in the
main, more open, wiki. Ultimately, if people can write things, they
can write things that violate rules. The question then is whether it
will be more manageable or less. This would require numbers, with
evidence, to support any proposal.

- d.