[WikiEN-l] Proposed policy on biographies: input sought

Mon Dec 19 12:10:15 UTC 2005

SlimVirgin wrote:

>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_on_living_persons_deserve_a_special_sensitivity
>It deals with the need to be respectful of subjects, which policies
>are particularly important, what they say, and what to do in the event
>of a legal threat. Any input would be appreciated, particularly from
>editors who are familiar with [[WP:NOR]] and [[WP:V]], who have worked
>a lot on biographies, who have legal backgrounds, members of the
>arbcom who have dealt with some of these issues recently in cases, and
>editors who themselves have Wikipedia entries and who know what it
>feels like to be the subject of a biography.

It reads too much like an attempt to invalidate Neutral Point Of View
and instead install Sympathetic Point Of View for living subjects.

If a fact or incident is notable and well documented, it belongs in
the article, whether the subject likes it or not. Look at the stupid
shit we've had people demanding we do to their articles since the
Seigenthaler controversy.

I've added explicit note of NPOV to the intro; let's see how long it lasts.

- d.