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_ Biographies of Living Persons _ BLP1E

Posted by: gomi


It is always interesting to see who gets BLP treatment at Wikipedia, especially among minor celebrities, politicians, and criminals (real or imagined). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BLP1E#Subjects_notable_only_for_one_event ("Biographies of People notable for only one event" to normal people) is a favorite Wikipedia battleground, routinely ignored when someone wants to slander someone or make a point.

An interesting case is that of Amanda Knox (T-H-L-K-D), the American student in Italy accused, convicted, and then un-convicted (conviction reversed on appeal) of a sensational murder. It is now a "redirect", linking to Murder of Meredith Kercher (T-H-L-K-D). However, as recently as http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Knox&oldid=367893901, Knox had a full-blown article about her, despite being notable for the one event only. Her Italian co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito (T-H-L-K-D), never had an independent article, and now even the redirect is being considered for deletion.

The treatment (for example) of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen (T-H-L-K-D) is not the same. He was arrested, detained without trial for over a year, and ultimately acquitted. Also one incident, and much less sensational, but no redirect for him.

A similar (but less sympathetic case, as he seems to have been actually guilty) is Kevin James (terrorist) (T-H-L-K-D). This guy, when released sometime in the 2020s, will be forever remembered on Wikipedia as "Kevin James - terrorist", however much or little improvement he has made to his character. But its one event, same as the others.

I doubt that anyone has a problem with complete non-notables like Kiur Aarma (T-H-L-K-D), Kari KÃ¥ring (T-H-L-K-D), or Joseph Kabagambe (T-H-L-K-D). But what about James Blake Miller (T-H-L-K-D)? Is he well-served for having an article in Wikipedia, outlining his PTSD, the demise of his marriage, etc, because he was the subject of a photo?

To pick someone many people will find difficult, there's the now-88 year-old Margarete Rabe (T-H-L-K-D), a convicted WWII German concentration camp guard. She was released from prison in 1954 -- does she need a page of her own? Arguably one event, maybe not, but only one citation (a passing reference in a 300 page document in German that says after a long list of names in which hers appears: "Aufseherinnen im Vernichtungslager" (Guards at the death camp)). Other than this, there are no citations for the rather nasty facts listed in the article.

Note that I have not selected unsourced BLPs, of which there are probably thousands -- that is its own problem, and equally or even more serious. Except for Amanda Knox, all of the BLPs here were found by clicking at random on names in the BLP category (and as an aside, someone really likes creating articles on obscure Estonians).

Anyway, I'm not so much interested in debating each individual case (and really not interested in debating their actual or alleged crimes, where that label is relevant), but I'm interested in amassing a list of egregious victims of BLP1E mis-use.


Posted by: It's the blimp, Frank

The faction here that believes that Wikipedia can be saved should take careful note of this.

Posted by: melloden

Then again, these are the things that these people will be known for for the rest of their lives (unless they become famous doing something else). If I knew who Kevin James was, I'd remember him as that one LA terrorist. Everyone knows Casey Anthony for (supposedly) murdering her baby, or Amanda Knox for allegedly murdering her roommate. And nothing else. Yet, these people have been covered so much in the media that it would be difficult, at least by Wikipediot standards, to justify not having an article on them. Because all the coverage is about one event, that's what the WP article ends up covering, too, and that in turn "informs" readers that basically all there is to someone's life is them murdering someone, etc.

Posted by: EricBarbour

I've got some 1E bios like that. But prefer to save them for future use (and you know what I mean).

If they were posted here, someone might fix them. And I don't want anything on Wikipedia "fixed",
because I'm still in the middle of criticizing its broken madness.

Posted by: Rhindle

There is also Anthony Bologna (T-H-L-K-D), a good example of recentism. He gets an article because he pepper-sprayed some protesters. It may have been a douchebag move but does everyone get an article because your one douchebag move gets documented on "reliable sources."

If I sneeze in kids faces and get them sick and 100 sources considered reliable document it do I get the privilege of a WP:BLP?

The article is in the AFD process but the ARS is coming in to save the day.

Posted by: Tarc

Bologna closed as a delete and redirect today, so another in a long string of failures for the ARSholes, though one of those crazy little wiki-gerbils is probably whipping out a Deletion Review filing as we speak.

I am quite proud of some past successes at preventing 1E articles from seeing the light of day, most names left out on purpose;

The reporter who had a mild stroke/aneurysm on air
The woman Gordon Brown called a bigot
Well-endowed woman fired for said endowments
The JetBlue guy
The Hiccup Girl
The Romney boys
The woman in the back of the "Situation room" photo
Michelle Bachmann's husband (imo my crowning achievement)

There are others that the ARS crew had early, vocal hissy fits over and got snow-closes that may bear a 2nd glance at some point soon. The hobo with the "golden DJ voice" comes to mind.


Finally, I'm not even going to touch the Amanda Knox topic any more, I am so fucking sick of these internet http://encyclopediadramatica.ch/White_knighting who still don't realize that no matter how much they argue investigation/trial minutiae on the internet, Knox still isn't going to fuck them.

Posted by: gomi

[Modnote: Ottava blather and subsequent digression sent to Tar Pit.]