[WikiEN-l] Defamatory Biographies - another problem looming for Wikipedia?

Sun Dec 18 21:55:26 UTC 2005

To excise all defamatory bios I would tend towards deleting any
defamatory material which is not properly cited (and cannot be with a
quick Google/Google news search, just to avoid these kinds of
problems. They can always be reinserted if sourced, but potentially
libellous material should be allowed to stay if not sourced.

Mgm

On 12/18/05, Keith Old <keithold at gmail.com> wrote:
> We have a real problem with unsourced defamatory biographies.
>
> This morning, while working on the Help desk, I responded to a letter from
> Lucianne Goldberg, who wrote seeking a deletion or correction to what she
> considered to be two highly offensive paragraphs in her biography. I looked
> at the article and saw that there were severe problems with some of the
> material in it.
>
> I have edited the article and sourced it as well as replying to her
> attaching a copy of the article as rewritten by me. I am awaiting her advice
> as to the specific information that was of concern to her. Once I have the
> specifics, I will advise further on the matter.
>
> However, the matter that I believe likely to be of most concern was in the
> original version of the article and has survived for nearly two months with
> multiple edits. There were no sources provided for the allegation. Frankly,
> this problem has the potential to be another big problem with Wikipedia.
>
> We need to pay particular attention to the biographies of contemporary
> biographies especially of controversial figures. In particular, we need to
> ensure that our articles are scrupulous in citing sources. We need to give
> instructions to recent changes patrollers to be on the lookout for
> biographies making negative claims without proper sourcing.
>
> Regards
>
>
> Keith Old
>
> Keith Old
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