Talk:Gene Ward Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or if there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

I'm a little unsure about the whether the recent edit discussing old Usenet history is ok under WP:BLP. It is, I believe, all true (and some of it has been on WP for much longer, on the Rich Rosen article), and maybe also adds some color to the article. But it's also old history and not necessarily flattering. Additional opinions welcome. —David Eppstein 04:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

It's on record in Google Groups that Gene signed his name even in serious technical newsgroups as "Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang" as least into the mid-1990s, long after leaving Berkeley and the demise of the Brahms Gang as a concrete Usenet institution. It seems clear he embraced the label willingly and even cheerfully. I didn't intend its mention here as disparaging, I don't see it as disparaging or unflattering, and I doubt Gene would either given his own embracing of the name. A biography of a person reasonably contains old history as well as recent. I would concur with your opinion that it adds color to the article and does not diminish or deride Gene in any way, in fact it is humanizing. So I don't see why this should be viewed negatively. MegaMergatroid 04:01, 20 July 2007 (UTC)