> This can be a very tricky issue. The Furry community has had to deal > with it in the past, because they have articles on members of that > subculture, and it can be very upsetting to people to have an > "encyclopedic" rehashing of unfortunate events from some years back.
This area was a recent subject of discussion on Wikipedia, and I wrote a summary of what we did to deal with it there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:OPTOUT#How_this_works_in_practice Biographical articles remain problematic on occasion, but we knew they would be from day one. It is just something you have to deal with if it is an appropriate topic for your wiki. Furries are "fans of one another", and so they are a natural topic for WikiFur - we would find it hard to *stop* people writing about one another. Most of the time, this is just fine, and the resulting articles may be very interesting. For some communities, it may make sense to restrict biographical information to referenced sources and people who are "notable" in some way. I think it is also fair for most wikis to have an explicit policy that says "you are too connected to this topic, you should not edit it directly", as long as you say that to all parties concerned. Request that they argue it out on the talk page and let other editors review the situation. You might enforce this by temporary protection in difficult cases. In terms of legal standing, there is little to stop you writing biographies of anyone you like as long as they consist of accurate facts and (optionally) matters of opinion that could not be construed as fact. People may say "it's against the law", but in most places it is not. There are some exceptions to this though, so tread carefully. For example, addresses, telephone numbers and social security and credit card numbers are probably best avoided. Some other things may be considered an invasion of privacy, depending on whether revealing them would be "highly offensive to a reasonable person". Use common sense here. For example, if someone claimed the creator of a Doom 2 expansion pack had stolen the images from another person, mentioning that might be quite appropriate, as might any evidence that they had a history of such activity . . . but adding the true but irrelevant fact that the creator was born out of wedlock would not be. If you were in court, it would be hard to argue that mentioning such a detail was in the public interest. If you make a false statement of fact, that *is* libel, and you must avoid it - but stating that other people have made assertions is typically not itself illegal (in the USA), even if the assertions turn out to be untrue. It would be unwise to do so if you have reason to believe them to be inaccurate, though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_privacy are worth reading for anyone who has to deal with this kind of situation. I don't want to scare people away from writing such articles if appropriate for your wiki. Generally speaking, only a small proportion of biographical articles cause problems - and once you have policies in place to deal with them, things become easier. The first time the issue comes up is always the hardest, because not only are you trying to deal with the problem, but you're trying to figure out the process to do so as well. If people try to hassle you or make unfounded legal threats, just remember: it is the right of your community to decide what goes on the website, within the bounds of the law. You may decide to do what they want, or something close to it, out of compassion; but, if so, it is *your* decision - not theirs - and it should be made on a schedule that is reasonable for you. Open a discussion, let it run for a few days or a week, and then (if necessary) call a vote, make a decision, and move on. -- Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry http://greenreaper.co.uk/ - http://wikifur.com/ "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?" _______________________________________________ Wikia-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
