Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-07-24/News and notes

News and notes

Biography guideline upgraded to policy

The guideline to biographies of living persons was upgraded to policy after a short discussion period. The page, created in December 2005 "due to the Daniel Brandt situation", had already become commonly accepted and cited; its use grew significantly over the past few months as emphasis continued to be placed on making sure that articles on living people were accurate and did not contain incorrect information following the John Seigenthaler controversy (see archived story).

Following the upgrading of the page from guideline to policy, renewed attention was cast on the so-called "living people biographies", as Danny Wool proposed on the mailing list a special recent-changes patrol dedicated to living people biographies. Dubbed the "living people patrol", Wool envisioned the group as one that could focus on keeping track of which articles pertained to living people and attempt to catch any articles not complying with current policy. In addition, Wool also later suggested that notability guidelines be made more stringent, citing the articles in the category So You Think You Can Dance contestants. Each of the articles in there, he said, were of living people who were unnotable. Wool, an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, however, did note that these were "only suggestion[s]."

Wikichildren proposed

Wikichildren, a place where content would be geared toward children in simple language and graphics, was proposed this week. The proposal included different account levels — those for adults and those for children — and also noted that the proposal was not the same as either the Wikijunior or Wikikids proposals.

Simple English Wikipedia

An Esperanza group has been formed on the Simple English Wikipedia, modeled after the same project on the English Wikipedia. Archer7 was chosen to serve as the group's leader until 4 October, 2006.