[WikiEN-l] Speedy deleletion patrol

Wed Dec 14 20:29:07 UTC 2005

On 12/14/05, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> Personally I would modify this slightly by even further acknowledging
> that it's _ok_ for people doing newpages patrol (especially) to err in
> the defense of quality, and that resurrecting a few things here and
> there behind them is a small price to pay for avoiding another
> Seigenthaler incident.
>

Absolutely. I don't want to risk resurrecting something like that, and
it doesn't make sense to undelete material that we're unsure of and
leaving it inadequately sourced.

Sadly the Seigenthaler case could probably happen again because the
man obviously existed and the article contained a defamatory statement
that was incidental to his significance as a former Assistant Attorney
General of the United States.  Any biographical article can contain
material of this nature and the more damaging libels are likely to be
in biographies of highly significant figures.