[WikiEN-l] Re: Articles about ourselves

Wed Nov 5 15:11:32 UTC 2003

Jimbo wrote:

>At a very minimum, it seems most tasteful for anyone about whom we do
>have an entry to recuse themselves from working on it.

Um...I've done some edits to the Wikipedia article about me (which 
was originally created by Ed Poor).

I don't see how this is inappropriate. I arguably have a "conflict of 
interest" in what I write about myself, but on the other hand, I know 
quite a bit about the topic. Anyway, there's nothing in the Wikipedia 
rules to prohibit people with conflicts of interest from 
contributing. We don't ask people who work for drug companies to 
recuse themselves from posting information about health-related 
topics. The ethos here is that people are allowed to have their own 
POV but are expected to work constructively with others in arriving 
at articles that are NPOV (insofar as that is attainable).

In the case of the article about myself, both Ed Poor and I have 
strong (and differing) opinions on the topic, but I don't have any 
problem with the role he has played in editing my bio, and I haven't 
seen him express any objections to the role I've played myself.

I'm mentioning this now partly as a heads-up so that if anyone DOES 
object to the way I've contributed to my own article, they should 
feel invited to fix it the usual wiki way -- by making whatever 
revisions they feel are appropriate. Here's the URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Rampton

-- 
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|  Sheldon Rampton
|  Editor, PR Watch (www.prwatch.org)
|  Author of books including:
|     Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities
|     Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
|     Mad Cow USA
|     Trust Us, We're Experts
|     Weapons of Mass Deception
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