User:JWSchmidt/Report

This page will hold the final report.

Introduction
How does a wiki website that is open and where "everyone can edit" prevent its biographies of living people from being disrupted by vandalism and bias? Wikipedia started with an emphasis on traditional biographies that might be expected to exist in a traditional print encyclopedia (example). The article talk page was the main tool for sorting out how to craft a balanced biography.

The early biographies of living persons on Wikipedia were usually about well-known people (example). and the evolution/creationism debates (related early discussion moved to META. What policies were developed to keep biographies under control? NPOV, all policy

The Siegenthaler Incident
In May of 2005 a Wikipedia editor entered false information into the Wikipedia biography for John Seigenthaler, Sr. The false information was not discovered until September 2005 after which it became known as the Seigenthaler Incident. In response to the publicity generated by this and other similar cases (see also), Wikipedia restricted page creation (see: Wikipedia Signpost 2005-12-05 "Page creation restrictions") and created new guidelines for biographies. The Wikipedia community continues to struggle with biased and false content in its biographical articles.

The  Biography
is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at a major university. She holds Doctor of Science and Master of Science degrees from a major university and a Bachelor of Science degree from a major university. She has been a member of the faculty at  since 1991 and a full professor since 2005.

With over a quarter of a million biographies, Wikipedia has many biographical articles about university professors. In 1997, Dr. published an important book in an innovative branch of Computer Science. One might guess that her Wikipedia biography would have been started in order to describe her scientific research and seminal contributions, however, that is not the case.

On Feb. 21, 2006, The New York Times published "Few Biologists but Many Evangelicals Sign Anti-Evolution Petition" by Kenneth Chang. The petition comprised a two-sentence statement, "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." Dr. was one of a group of 105 scientists, researchers, and academics who agreed with this statement when it was circulated (in E-Mail) in academia in 2001.

On March 8, 2006 the Wikipedia biography article about Dr. was started by a Wikipedia editor who copied the online Faculty Profile of Dr. . In addition to the copied Faculty Profile, the Wikipedia article included a section called, "Intelligent Design Support". Based on the edits of the creator of this BLP, it is clear that the purpose of this editor was to create an article that labels Dr. as a supporter of Intelligent Design and as "anti-evolution". The Wikipedia user account " " that was used to create this BLP was a single purpose account, used only to push into Wikipedia the claim that Dr. is anti-evolution and a supporter of Intelligent Design. Note that person editing as " " is an experienced wiki editor who decided to use a "throw-away account" in order to make a biographical article that violates the Wikipedia policy on Biographies of living persons, which reads in part: "Editors should be on the lookout for the malicious creation or editing of biographies or biographical information. If someone appears to be pushing a point of view, ask for credible third-party published sources and a clear demonstration of relevance to the person's notability."

Comments by User:Centaur of attention

 * This does help. It's you who are being unhelpful
 * One-sided "analysis" that casts specific Wikipedians in poor light

Discussion
As far as I can tell, the page has now been "sanitized". I wonder why it matters to the Wikipedian who edits at Wikiversity as "Centaur of attention" that a throw-away account, created for the purpose of violating Wikipedia policy, was discussed on this page as an example that illustrates a problem at Wikipedia. I think this page can be helpful in thinking about how to improve BLP policy. I have to wonder how the problems of Wikipedia will ever be fixed if Wikipedians like myself are prevented from studying those problems. --JWSchmidt 01:03, 17 September 2008 (UTC)