[WikiEN-l] The niceness principle

Thu May 12 02:58:40 UTC 2005

On 5/11/05, Stacey Greenstein <stacey.nj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Should we then only write nice things about people/ Should we only include
> facts that the subjects' approve? Or should we be impartial and show that
> there is reality and negativeity?

And when I wrote that I meant the note to Ed to be offline, I meant
offlist, sorry. Was trying to do too many things at once there.

Stacey, it's not a question of requiring subjects' approval. Sometimes
it's important to fight to keep material in Wikpedia, and I've done
it, but in this case, the subject is a private person, entirely
non-notable, in a story that isn't a matter of public interest; so if
it were up to me alone, I'd delete it because it's upsetting him. It's
a question of cost-benefit. In this case, there's a cost to him and no
benefit to us.

Sarah