[WikiEN-l] AFD courtesy problem

Tue Jan 17 21:48:47 UTC 2006

On 1/17/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> It is increasingly common that non-notable people write to me after they
> find their own name in Wikipedia via a google search.  They are finding,
> of course, their own AFD entry ... They feel sad and annoyed enough
> to write letters to me about it.

> What I recommend is the following procedure: ...
>
> 2. At the close of all VfD debates, the discussion is deleted.

I like the idea of deleting the VfD page when the debate has closed. I
remember one debate about a teenager who had killed himself, where the
discussion about whether he was notable involved allegations that his
parents were implicated in his death. That very hurtful page is
probably still floating out there on Google.

The broader issue is why we allow Google to pick up any of our talk or
project pages, where NPOV, NOR, and V don't apply. Can anyone explain
why we allow that?

Sarah