Golden pages about living persons, or those which contain information about living persons, require an even higher standard of factuality, neutrality, and reliance on credible high-quality sources. Simply put, information about living persons must be correct.
Biographies of living individuals must strictly adhere to U.S. law, to this policy, and the policies of Golden. It is also important to consider the possibility of harm to living people when contributing or editing. Any contentious material which is unsourced or poorly source should be removed immediately. This is an area where the burden of evidence rests with contributors who are adding information — it is preferable to have no information rather than information that is false or inaccurate.
Maintaining a neutral tone is especially important in articles about living persons. Golden is not a place for individuals to share their personal feelings about someone else. Criticism and praise may be included but should be accurate and represent high-quality and reliable sources.
Contributors should strive for an overall balanced page giving due weight to notable events and actions without giving undue space to fringe, conspiracy, or unsupported viewpoints. Attack pages intended primarily to disparage individuals, especially when poorly sourced, should be deleted. Do not cherry-pick only negative or only positive articles about an individual. A balanced page reflects an equal cross-section of the consensus view of reliable sources.
Err on the side of caution when including private information about an individual to unwanted violations of privacy or doxxing. Personal details which are private or not relevant to the page like contact information (email addresses, telephone number, postal address, etc) shouldn't be included unless these are business contact information that is public. Information like full name or date of birth may be relevant if it is public and published in reliable sources.
Pages about individuals who are not public figures should be viewed with excess caution, especially when considering material that could adversely affect their reputation. There are additional legal protections for relatively unknown individuals against defamatory claims and contributors should be careful not to repeat such claims. Additionally, individuals accused of committing crimes should be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
Inaccuracies or obvious errors should be quickly fixed by anyone, including the subject of the biography. Additional concerns about tone, balance, or inclusion of specific information can be brought to the attention of [email protected] who can help fix the material to align with Golden's policies. Subjects who have legal or other serious concerns about material they find about themselves on a Golden should e-mail [email protected] with a link to the topic page and details of the problem.