I noticed a thread on Jimbo's talk page that is partly related to this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#A_radical_idea.3B_BLP_opt-out_for_all
Tarc suggested:
"Any living person, subject to identity verification via OTRS, may
request the deletion of their article. No discussion, no AfD, just
*poof*. In its place is a simple template explaining why there is no
longer an article there, and a pointer to where the reader can find
information on the subject, a link similar to Template:Find sources at
the top of every AfD."
What people there seem to be missing is that the template would
explicitly say "article removed at subject's request". The point being
that this could well result in a big PR stink for either Wikipedia
("the article was rubbish and rightly removed") or for the subject
("they are (wrongly) trying to control what is said about them").
[This is why it relates to the topic of this thread]
This is why such a proposal might actually work.
I am rather surprised at why some people miss that this is about
living people though. BWilkins said:
"You can't very well tear out "Mussolini" from every copy of EB ever
printed, can you?"
Obviously, for those who are dead, this proposed policy would no
longer apply, and you default back to the usual arguments about
notability and so on. And I still maintain that notability cannot be
properly assessed until someone's life or career has finished. The
whole "notability is not temporary" thing needs serious
re-examination.
Carcharoth
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