No "downside" to biographies of living persons policy.

[iii]

Hersch writes of BLP policy:

In practice: to the extent that it is enforced, this is the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. There is really no down side to this policy....

I think we could think of some downsides.

One downside is that it immunizes Wikipedians who create new articles about living people. As long as what they can argue without too many people catching on that their contribution is "in line" with this policy, they can get away with creating an "exposure" article even if the person in question doesn't want it.

[Zoloft]

Hersch writes of BLP policy:

In practice: to the extent that it is enforced, this is the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. There is really no down side to this policy....

I think we could think of some downsides.

One downside is that it immunizes Wikipedians who create new articles about living people. As long as what they can argue without too many people catching on that their contribution is "in line" with this policy, they can get away with creating an "exposure" article even if the person in question doesn't want it.

Link for quote please.

[iii]

This is the permalink, but for now it's the first you thing you see upon typing "wikipediocracy.com" into the URL address bar.

[Zoloft]

BLP (WP:BLP) – Biographies on living persons
In theory:  the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. 
In practice: to the extent that it is enforced, this is the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. There is really no down side to this policy, and it is deeply resented by the Wikipedia Old Guard.

The whole quote from the current blog post, with actual context.

As a matter of fact, thanks! You gave me an idea to fix a problem.

[Volunteer Marek]

Hersch writes of BLP policy:

In practice: to the extent that it is enforced, this is the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. There is really no down side to this policy....

I think we could think of some downsides.

One downside is that it immunizes Wikipedians who create new articles about living people. As long as what they can argue without too many people catching on that their contribution is "in line" with this policy, they can get away with creating an "exposure" article even if the person in question doesn't want it.

Well, the obvious downside is that it allows the creation/whitewashing of numerous articles on numerous sketchy people which are then used to pretend that these folks are reliable sources. David Duke can be just another politician, Kevin B. MacDonald or David Irving a 'scholar' etc. Overall I think it's a good policy and much needed, but remember, the first rule of Wikipedia is that "any Wikipedia policy can be successfully gamed, and that includes WP:GAME itself". And BLP.

[Ismail]

Hersch writes of BLP policy:

In practice: to the extent that it is enforced, this is the policy that says Thou Shalt Not Defame. There is really no down side to this policy....

I think we could think of some downsides.

One downside is that it immunizes Wikipedians who create new articles about living people. As long as what they can argue without too many people catching on that their contribution is "in line" with this policy, they can get away with creating an "exposure" article even if the person in question doesn't want it.

Well, the obvious downside is that it allows the creation/whitewashing of numerous articles on numerous sketchy people which are then used to pretend that these folks are reliable sources. David Duke can be just another politician, Kevin B. MacDonald or David Irving a 'scholar' etc. Overall I think it's a good policy and much needed, but remember, the first rule of Wikipedia is that "any Wikipedia policy can be successfully gamed, and that includes WP:GAME itself". And BLP.

I think the difference is that there are tons of reliable, published sources that say Duke is a racist, Irving is a pseudo-historian, etc. There's no defaming in that case because that is their reputation.

Bit different from a popular blog rumor that Justin Bieber has AIDS or something.