[WikiEN-l] Borderline notable bios (yes, again)

Wed Jul 12 22:18:08 UTC 2006

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>If you read something negative about someone, and there is no source,
>then either find a _legitimate_ source (and make sure that WE do not
>make the negative claim, but rather than we merely report neutrally on
>what the claim is), or just remove it... and insist that anyone who
>wants to put it back, do so with a legitimate source!
>  
>
Yeah, I agree with all that, I just don't see this as related to 
semi-notability or legitimately addressed by deletion.  All these same 
problems arise with extremely notable people as well, especially 
controversial ones.  With very notable people obviously we aren't going 
to delete the article because, say, [[George W. Bush]] keeps getting 
vandalized.  I don't think we should do so in less-notable cases 
either---an article should only be deleted if there really is no reason 
to have an article on the topic, not because it's a vandalism magnet.  
Other measures, like semi-protection, having some people put it on their 
watchlists, or even temporary outright protection, are better ways to 
combat vandalism IMO.  Perhaps we even need new anti-vandalism measures, 
but deleting articles entirely is sort of a silly way of keeping them 
from being vandalized.

-Mark