[WikiEN-l] Verifiability

Thu Dec 15 17:13:00 UTC 2005

On 12/15/05, charles matthews <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote
>
> > And yet there's no such
> requirement when adding a claim about a living person that could
> potentially damage them. That discrepancy suggests we have our
> priorities upside down.
>
> No libels or slurs are welcome on Wikipedia.  That said, the risk of
> blandness in dealing with live people is very real.  We _must not_ give
> people the right of approval on what WP writes about them.
>
> Charles

Showing them what we write about them and then listening to their
response wouldn't be such a bad idea, though.

Unsubstantiated rumors aren't welcome on Wikipedia either.  We're lax
about it in some cases, but in terms of potentially damaging
information we shouldn't be.  I'd respond to slimvirgin that
Wikipedia:Verifiability already gives editors the power to move
unsubstantiated information to the talk page (at least after a good
faith effort to locate a source).  We just haven't been exercising
that power as often as we should.

Anthony