User:ErrantX/Essays/BLP1E

One of the policies I see regularly misapplied, misjudged or misunderstood is that of WP:BLP1E. It's unfortunate, because this should be one of our key biographical policies - a front line protecting the private lives of people caught up in a single event.

At the moment we seem to have a policy of highly prominent individuals, with media coverage in relation to one event, receiving a biography. This is almost always redundant - containing no additional useful information to what could be covered in the event article.

For an individual we are here to record their involvement with a notable event, not them. The key point about BLP1E is to judge whether anything outside of that coverage is worth recording. Generally other aspects of their life are not especially notable, and of no long term encyclopaedic interest. That it might receive some scrutiny during their notable period is, I think, somewhat misdirecting. The thing worth recording is all in association with their notable event - perhaps with some background - judged suitable - context. We can do all of that in event articles, there is little requirement for a biography.

Where a biography becomes useful is where two or more events in a person's life are worth recording, and they don't link up naturally in a single event article. At that point a biography makes sense for the reader because it acts as a link and a summary of those multiple "events".

The problem I see is a growing number of biographies of people who could better be dealt with in the event article. Having a biography invites trivia about their private lives and sits as a magnet for a BLP nightmare - especially in contentious areas. I feel we tend to hold a far too low standard to the "one event" policy - in that we should almost always write event articles, and only write biographies when there really is no other sensible solution (this is much better for the reader, also).