Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard/Archive14
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| Derek Smart – False report. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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As noted by other editors, the COI SPA report was false. There have been no edits to the article since March 27. — Athænara ? 23:52, 14 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Darius J Pearce – Article deleted. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| John T. Reed – Inactive. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Disagree with deletion of the page. --PeterMarkSmith 06:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| T. Padmanabhan (Writer) – Inactive. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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T. Padmanabhan (Writer) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - This BLP swings from one end to another. At one place the subject is called a trend setter and at another place he is described as egoistic. No sources quoted // Weblogan 14:08, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Anthony Flew – Resolved. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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As per both the neutral point of view and biographies of living persons policies, I pruned this bio of the philosophical hatchet jobbing, improved upon the references, added a 1984 book which hadn't been listed (though, strangely, one of its chapters had been), etc. — Athænara ? 06:14, 10 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Purushottam Nagesh Oak – Inactive. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Gwen Stefani – Simple vandalism reverted. – 03:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Stephen Barrett – In mediation. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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? See also: Talk:Stephen Barrett#Request for comment: Board certification ? See also: Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-04-05 Stephen Barrett
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| Peter Dobbie – Resolved. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Muhammad al-Durrah – Inactive. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Muhammad al-Durrah (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views). This is an unusual case on which it would be good to get some independent input. The subject has been extremely widely covered by the mainstream media. A cursory search of Google news archives suggests that the majority of mainstream sources agree that the subject is dead, though there is disagreement over who killed him. However, a limited number of mostly non-mainstream sources say that he is not dead, that his death was faked and that his continued existence has been covered up for the last 7 years by a wide-ranging international conspiracy. Consequently the article is listed in Category:Possibly living people. Given the dispute over whether the subject is dead or alive, I've added the BLP template to the article talk page in order to err on the side of caution. However, if the BLP rules are followed, the sources that declare the subject to be alive - basically self-published sources and overtly partisan websites - will be problematic due to the WP:BLP#Reliable sources restrictions on the use of such sources. I've not edited the article myself; I recall reading about the matter at the time, but that's about the limit of my knowledge. However, there's clearly a major issue about the sourcing. Some tendentious editing appears to be going on, with strong POV statements on the talk page and mainstream national newspapers being dismissed as non-reliable. The tone of the article is problematic and is dominated by the non-mainstream POV - undue weight is clearly an issue. Two thirds of the article is dedicated to the discussion of a conspiracy theory promoted (and self-published) by an professor of medieval history, a physicist and an engineer. The article would clearly benefit from the attention of some independent editors. -- ChrisO 19:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Gene R. Nichol – Article protected. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Out of pride (and hubris), I want to clarify that I am a culprit of overly eager reversions (since abated), but that I am not a culprit of ignoring requests to discuss the issue or of failing to discuss the changes on talk pages (although I put my concerns only on the William and Mary page, not on both the William and Mary page and the Nichol page). Indeed, some of those requests to discuss were my requests. Just trying to make sure my flaws are clear! Cka3n 05:42, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Cat Porter – Resolved. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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One issue has been resolved (Porter was born in Kent) but this section will need to remain active a bit longer. The article has been plagued with disruptive editing for weeks. — Athænara ? 00:21, 11 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Michael Kim (director) – Article deleted. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Jeremy Irons – Vandalism reverted. – 03:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC) |
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His "private life" sections contains only text from some other article, nothing about him. As I do not have information to correct it myself, perhaps someone can do it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.35.252.194 (talk) 07:22, 16 April 2007 (UTC).
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| Daniel Pipes – Inactive. – 00:30, 24 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Daniel Pipes Daniel Pipes [watch?]This article still suffers from biased editing. See the talk page and the problems of the article lacking "full citations" (over thirty external links are not identified as "full citations"); the article clearly does not clearly, adequately, and consistently identify the authors, titles, publications, dates of publication, and dates accessed of the sources used in the article. I have pointed this out, but no one has stepped up to correct these violations of Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Citations, Wikipedia:Attribution, Wikipedia:Guidelines for controversial articles, Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, WP:POV, WP:BLP#Public figures, and Wikipedia:Manual of style (with links to several of these other articles). I have previously given much of the needed information for providing "full citations"; this information is accessible (see talk page archive pages). There is no reason not to disclose fully the full citations, unless one is engaging in trying to hide what the sources actually are. Assuming WP:AGF, one hopes that that is not what is going on in that article. But the article appears to be trying to present the subject in a positive light but avoiding citing the titles of articles used as sources and showing how much of the material comes from Pipes's own websites [and/or from other sites; from articles sympathetic and/or critical of him; authors and titles etc. are needed to see nature, reliability, and notabilty, and verifiability of the sources linked]. That is not in keeping with Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Articles in Wikipedia dealing with subjects relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the parties to that conflict, the Middle East, and living persons whose notability relates to their work on that region and that conflict and the parties to it seem continually to suffer from biases and lack of actual Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. (This is my second attempt to call [attention] to this article in this noticeboard. Subsequent editing by others of this article has not assuaged my concerns about it. Please consult the editing history of the article and the current and archived talk pages and the misleading way in which the archive of the talk page was constructed initially. Such obviously-biased and misleading articles do not represent Wikipedia in a positive light, in my view. To mislead Wikipedia readers, who may be students, is not doing a service to these readers.) --NYScholar 02:19, 28 March 2007 (UTC)-[corrected typo. error. --NYScholar 04:13, 7 April 2007 (UTC)] |
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| Tiffany Adler – Article moved, cleaned up, no longer a violation – 19:05, 21 April 2007 (UTC) |
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? See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tiffany Adler
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| Prokofy Neva – Article deleted. – 02:01, 24 April 2007 (UTC) |
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An entry about my Second Life avatar, Prokofy Neva, contains a number of factual errors and also libelous statements. It links the avatar in the private world of Second Life with my real-life identity against my will. It actually contains the wrong name, a common error. While this is the Internet, and links like this get made all the time, I would question Wikipedia's policy regarding the publication of profiles of avatars from virtual worlds or games, and the linking of such avatars to their real-life persons. The article falsely claims that I incited or called for violence against another resident of Second Life. I have not incited or called for any violence against any other person, real or virtual. I would request that the entire entry be removed. Another entry about Second Life on Wikipedia mentions me as one of the prominent people in Second Life, and mentions that my avatar, Prokofy Neva, is controversial and banned from the forums. There is no need for a separate entry, or if one is prepared, it should remove the errors occuring in every line, and remove libelous and tendentious material. Prokofy Neva —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.83.191.201 (talk • contribs) 13:15, April 19 2007 (UTC) |
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| Jasper Johns – Misplaced report - not WP:BLP issue. – 02:58, 24 April 2007 (UTC) |
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This page is for disputes. I have copied your comment to the Jasper Johns page. --Gbleem 10:07, 22 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| David Hicks – Inactive. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Louise Lanctôt – Resolved. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Louise Lanctôt (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - Completely unsourced, with quite nasty claims. Quick Google search suggests that the article is generally accurate, but I've not the time (nor, for that matter, the inclination) to wade through it all. Jonel | Speak 21:46, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Yehuda HaKohen – Inactive. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehuda_HaKohen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.18.214 (talk • contribs) 10:36, April 10, 2007 (UTC) |
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| Scientology Finance – Not a BLP issue. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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It doesn't name any individuals but it seems to violate the spirit of WP's living persons policies. Steve Dufour 06:03, 13 April 2007 (UTC)
I am putting this section back after it was removed. It seems to me that if the article is saying that these are policies being followed by Scientologists then living people are involved. On the other hand if they are just L. Ron Hubbard's opinions the article should be deleted as non-notable and original research, which is what BigDT seems to be saying. Thanks. Steve Dufour 15:02, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks you all. I tend to think that an article titled "Catholic Finance" or "Jewish Finance" wouldn't be allowed on WP. Steve Dufour 02:18, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Howard Zinn – Content dispute. Inactive. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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After attending a lecture given by Howard Zinn, recently, at UMass, Boston, I added material to the Iraq section to further explain his views. A few days ago, I noticed while Googling "Howard Zinn" that the Wikipedia entry defaulted far down into a section called "Criticism" to introduce a very negative remark about the author of "A People's History of the United States" into the Google slug line. Yahoo searches default to eh beginning of the Wikipedia article, offering biographical info and thus is neutral, not negative. It was as if this section of Wikipedia had been rigged, and Google hacked, to create a negative first impression of Zinn to users of Google and Wikipedia. Coming back to the bio, I noticed that there was talk about whether the Criticism was even valid. I decided to add background explaining Zinn and his critics, in the context of the schools of thought that each represented. Coming back a couple days later, I noticed that someone named Skywriter had appointed him/herself judge, jury, and executioner to destroy all of the work that I had made trying to elucidate Zinn, his relation to other historians (such as the Schlesinger school of consensual history) so someone, a layman, could understand the context in which Zinn labors, and the mainstream (right and left) that he rows his boat against. This Skywriter destroyed any contextualization, such as putting the conservative critic who had been mentioned in the context of his relatinship with certain reactionary elements that have flourished recently. I admit, and expected, someone to read it and recast it in a more neutral light than I, having recently read much of Zinn and being familiar with the man, likely had written it. (That is, I was likely more sympathetic to Zinn and negative towards his critics as I was writing about the man.) In other pieces I've come in on, this is usually the case, and frequently one gets a better, more balanced article out of it. Here is what Skywriter wrote jusitfying his wholesale destruction of my work: "The focus of the criticism section is on the individuals other than Zinn. It is not necessary and indeed bogs down this article by including vast amounts of unrelated material to this biographical sketch of Zinn. I intend to delete unrelated material. Feel free to take this material to the pages of the individuals where it is relevant." Skywriter 02:32, 14 April 2007 (UTC) My comment: No, the focus of the CRITICISM section is CRITICISM of Zinn, and how it relates to him and the critics, and the field of American history, that is, how it is studied and related to the American people. This Skywriter made a comment about B.U. President Silber that showwed his ignorance of the issues. Another comment of Skywriter: "Some folks went far afield writing various essays within this article on subjects unrelated to the topic at hand. Although lengthy, that material also lacked references. It's now been cleaned up. Skywriter 15:04, 14 April 2007 (UTC) My comment: This was all referenced, and if there were a LACK OF REFERENCES, that could have been highlighted, and thos references put in. One thing I do when writing is, since there is no spell-checker that I know of on Wikipedia, I cut and paste my work to another program, spell-check, and bring it back. Sometimes formatting related to references, and thus the references, are deleted if I'm not careful. MY ARGUMENT: While I might be considered pro-Zinn, this Skywriter, I believe, is definitely anti-Zinn (as opposed to someone seeking neutrality or a neutral tone). He just destroyed a great deal of work, and research, trying to contextualize Zinn, and why he would be meaningful, and why he would be relevant in 2007 (as opposed to 1968, or 1972, or 1962, all times when Zinn had influence), and why his critics denigrate him. I would consider Wikipedia a resource that would seek to explain and contextualize the people that are written about, within the limits of an obtainable objectivity. The histories/biographies of the Zinn critics, and contextualizing them and their place within American history since World War II (as the two examples, NOT CHOSEN BY ME, are evocative of the liberal strain of history as exemplified by the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., someone Zinn mentioned in his recent Boston lecture, and Joseph McCarthy. They and contextualizing them in history are entirely relevant to any discussion of Zinn AS HE SEEKS TO ELUCIDATE AMERICAN HISTORY so people know its impact on the HERE AND NOW and how certain strains, such as the anti-intellectual stain of the Accuracy in Academia/Accuracy in Media crowd (who called Walter Cronkite a fellow traveler) persist. THIS IS THE GIST OF HOWARD ZINN'S WORK, and why the critics have to be contextualized. As this is at the root of his philosophy of history, Santayana's dictum "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. I believe Skywriter should not be allowed near the Howard Zinn article as he is an editor who cannot see the forest, but for the trees. I also believed he is prejudiced against Zinn, and destroyed the work, the Iraq and the Criticism sections, out of malice. I ask: Why did he keep the criticism section in, which is utterly barebones and meaningless as he judged these two men not to be representative of two strains/schools of thought antithetical to Zinn, but as something to serve as minor sluglines that fill space. And thus, once again, we can GOOGLE to the negative comment about Zinn. Let me reiterate, I belive Skywriter is prejudiced, and on the thesis that "If it looks like a duck" is involved in the hack of Google to denigrate Howard Zinn. He/she shold be pulled off the article and forbidden to touch it. A new editor, a more experienced editor, should be assigned, and after reinstating the text of Iraq and the Criticism sections, edit them for the purpose of neturality, and to perhaps compress them to eliminate redundancy or superfulous detail. But Zinn and his critics, and his stance on the war on Iraq (as one of the most prominent anti-war critics and arguably the most popular "populist historian" in US history (as his liberal critics said, need to be part of any article on the man that is aimed at educating the public, so they understand him. Robert Dalziel 05:17, April 16, 2007 (UTC) |
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| Lewis Libby – Page protected – 19:26, 21 April 2007 (UTC) |
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Some intervention is needed by admins to deal with the edit warring on the Lewis Libby page. (I am an interested party, btw). Notmyrealname 18:44, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Dave Brubeck – Referred to article talk page. – 22:48, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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(Frankly, Wikipedia gets worse every time I try and come back...) 62.147.39.198 18:18, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
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| David Gaiman – Resolved. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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I believe this is in fact true. According to the Contemporary Authors Online database, Neil Gaiman was born to David Bernard Gaiman (a company director) and Sheila Gaiman (a pharmacist) on November 10, 1960, in Portchester, England. A 1974 book, The Hidden Story of Scientology, refers to "David B. Gaiman, Deputy Guardian of the Church of Scientology (World Wide)". David Bernard Gaiman is listed in the Companies House database as the proprietor of G & G Food Supplies, a vitamin shop in East Grinstead (where Scientology has its UK headquarters). The company is co-run by Sheila Gaiman - see http://www.gandginfo.com/en/ . Issue #50 of Scientology's "Impact" magazine lists David Gaiman and G&G Food Supplies as being "Patrons" of the Church of Scientology ([7]), and G&G Food Supplies is listed as one of the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises network of businesses ([8]). I don't think there's any real reason to doubt that the David Bernard and Sheila Gaiman who fathered Neil Gaiman in Portchester in 1960 are the same David Bernard and Sheila Gaiman who were working for Scientology in the 1960s and 1970s, and who are now running a company selling vitamins to Scientologists in East Grinstead. -- ChrisO 23:27, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
ChrisO, please explain this edit if you're that well aware of WP:SYN. I've reverted it as a WP:BLP/WP:SYN violation. AvB ÷ talk 22:34, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
I find it interesting that content and references had been added to the David Gaiman article in such a way that the name "Neil" now appears a total of five times, twice in the text and thrice in the references section. Undue weight, anyone? I'd even characterise it as sneaky. — Athænara ? 10:10, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
I've found a newspaper article in which David Gaiman (the Scientologist) explicitly says that Neil Gaiman (the author) is his son. This should hopefully resolve many of the difficulties we've encountered here. More at Talk:Neil Gaiman#Possible reference found. -- ChrisO 14:14, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Straight, Incorporated – Inactive. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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? See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Straight, Incorporated
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| Jeremy St. Louis – Vandalism reverted. Inactive. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Template:Dominionism – Inactive. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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This template contains a list of alleged "advocates" of and "organizations" associated with the Dominionism movement. The term "Dominionist" describes an extreme element of the Religious Right, and is used almost exclusively and pejoratively by opponents of the Religious Right. The problem here is that there is at least one IP user who insists on including mainstream Religious Right figures like James Dobson and Rick Warren on that list. There are only a few little-known extremists who self-label as Dominionist; Dobson and Warren, among others, do not. The IP user is presenting a list of exclusively partisan and mostly non-notable sources as cites, and doesn't seem to understand that WP:BLP does not allow one to use partisan sources to make a factual statement about the membership of an individual in a controversial movement. - Merzbow 19:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
We do not list people in categories in Wikipedia solely on the say-so of their political enemies in opinion pieces. As it seems you have no intention of budging, I encourage those reading to chime in here so we can establish consensus against this ridiculous position and get the template unlocked. - Merzbow 23:08, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Jack Ingram – Vandalism reverted. Inactive. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Mindy Kaling – Inactive. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| Michael Sneed – Resolved. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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? See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Michael Sneed
I've been bold and stopped this from pretending to be a biography at all. Michael Sneed is currently a redirect to Chicago Sun-Times, pending a proper, actual biography being written, and the original article is now at Inaccurate media reports of the Virginia Tech massacre. Note, in light of the WP:BLP policy, that we have zero sources that call this a "Michael Sneed Incident". Uncle G 17:26, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
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| Nathaniel Branden – Content dispute referred to article talk page. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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On the Nathaniel Branden article put the word "unaccredited" in front of the schools name from which he acquired his PhD (about the second paragraph of the article). I did some research and discovered that the school is approved by the state and that accreditation is fairly complex and that there are 11 other private colleges that the state approves for degrees and whose degrees are accepted for licensing. It is a matter or large state institutions and small private colleges. Using that word, without a detailed explanation that would be inappropriate to the article was a form of implied libel. It creates a false impression that Branden has a suspect degree and therefore might not even be properly licensed - which isn't true. I deleted the entry and explained on the talk page. And edit war ensued. User Pia proposed a compromise that he would be happy with. Remove the text from the body of the article, but put it in the footnote. He and I and CrCulver agreed on that. Here is a link to the compromise diff. Then recently someone put the word "unaccredited" back into the article. The edit war started over again. An identified sock-puppet, FraiserB, became involved. The old compromise wasn't acceptable to the sock-puppet and User Pia. That is where it stands now. Here is my case for treating this as libel: - "Wikipedia articles that present material about living people can affect subjects' lives. Biographical material must be written with the greatest care and attention to verifiability, neutrality and avoiding original research, particularly if it is contentious". taken from the "In a Nutshell" section of BLP Branden's livelihood as a psychologist, publishable author and public speaker depends upon his reputation. (He is the author of about 18 books and does public speaking) Because a word or phrase about "unaccredited" could be construed as implying that his degree is from a diploma mill, that would be very contentious for someone whose professional license depends upon a valid degree. So, as to the Nutshell, if it is implied libel, Branden could be hurt and it is a contentious issue. But is it libel? The statement that the school is unaccredited is partially correct factually but unless it is given in a full context would always be misinterpreted. The school is accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Society and it is approved by the state and it is not a diploma mill and the state recognizes this particular school for the purpose of licensing. But this isn't known by a reader who sees the word "unaccredited". What is also not know is why the Western Regional Accreditation wasn't given. They require a larger library that a small college is likely to have and they require sports facilities that a small college might not have. But that kind of information is also not available to the reader. In an encyclopedia article every fact is presented in an order and in a context that results in an impression on a reader. Editors choose the right words and phrasing - judging what is "on topic" and appropriate - Editors choose which facts, what emotions the reader is likely to have, what writing style, and to stay on topic. The use of a phrase or even a sentence about the nature of the school is not fitting for this reason as well. It is information that belongs on the schools article and perhaps in a footnote. But the only reason to put it in the text would be if it were an exception to the norm of having a PhD - a bad PhD. And that isn't the case. We don't say anything about all the scientists all around the world who hold degrees that aren't from an accredited school (unless that is a noteworthy fact - like it was a phony degree or from a diploma mill). Here is the quote from Jimmy Wales on the BLP page: "We must get the article right. Be very firm about high quality references, particularly about details of personal lives. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just highly questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space." The references are of high quality and they are properly cited sources - that is not the problem. But it is misleading in its presentation and therefore highly questionable. - BLP policy calls for: "The article itself must be edited with a degree of sensitivity" This is not being shown by those who are edit warring to keep something in the article that can not help the reader in understanding Branden who is the subject of the article. But it could hurt him. The hurt would be unjust since his degree is valid. - BLP also says, "Biographies of living people should be written responsibly, conservatively, and in a neutral, encyclopedic tone" It isn't responsible or conservative for the reasons given to the point above. The tone in so far as word style, is neutral. The impact on the reader is not neutral. - The footnote can be a full sentence that describes the school as unaccredited but approved and the school name is a link the school article that describes the various approvals and accreditations the school has and the accreditation is doesn't have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Graduate_Institute Footnote: # ^ According to the State of California Board of Psychology, the California Graduate Institute is an unaccredited institution approved by the California Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE). See Unaccredited California Approved Schools: A History and Current Status Report. Government, State of California. Retrieved 1 March 2007. - Libel can be implied. "In law, defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel The implication here is that there is something fishy about the degree. And that is a seriously harmful thing to say about someone making a living based upon their reputation. That is my take on this issue. What I need is some kind of ruling and if it is favorable for Branden some kind of Admin action to put it put it in place since anything I do would just start another edit-war. Thanks. Steve 00:26, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
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| The above is an archived Biographies of living persons incident concerning the article above. Please do not modify it. |
| Thomas Everett – Serial vandalism reverted. – 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
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| The following is an archived Biographies of living persons incident concerning the article above Please do not modify it. |
63.215.29.249 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) = serial vandal. Reverted. — Athænara ? 22:40, 25 April 2007 (UTC) |
| The above is an archived Biographies of living persons incident concerning the article above. Please do not modify it. |
Recent changes to BLPs
A link to Special:Recentchangeslinked/Category:Living people has been added to the RecentChanges page under the "Utilities" row, titled BLP. This can facilitate the finding of vandalism to biographies of living persons to avoid a "Sinbad (actor)-type" incident happening in the future. Cross-posted to WP:VPN, WP:AN, WT:BLP, #wikipedia, and #wikipedia-en. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 18:31, 9 April 2007 (UTC)