Talk:Biographies of living people

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Commons flap[edit]

In reference to arguments currently taking place at w:User talk:Jimbo Wales and Commons:Commons:Village pump, I should note that this proposal (though I still oppose it) at least does not apply to Commons.

"Any inaccuracies presented as proven fact about a living person which cannot be verified must quickly be corrected or immediately removed unless a suitably identified and reliable source can be found." -- the author of an uploaded PDF or other text-containing document is the source

"Suitability for the purpose of this policy is judged according to each project's local standards. This does not prevent editors from reporting inaccuracies by a third party; whether or not such reporting is itself a misrepresentation of facts depends on how it is presented by editors." -- in other words, the very most that would ever be required is a disclaimer.

To repeat what I said in the former discussion: The Obama Nation, once #1 on the New York Times best-seller list, has been described as "a political 'attack book' containing smears, falsehoods, and innuendo". Against a living person. But if someone decided to remove it from the shelves of the local public library, would you describe that as an act of maturity? Commons has a similar mission: to archive material, not to judge it. Wnt 05:21, 28 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with this comment by Wnt. Comparing this to the example of proposing to steal books from a library, is particularly striking. -- Cirt (talk) 06:22, 28 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]