Talk:Campaign for the neologism "santorum"/Triumvirate

As usual for these discussions, I begin by examining the numerical support for each side. A substantial majority (50 out of 68, or 73.5%) supports including the link (one sockpuppet of a banned user having been excluded). While numbers are not, by themselves, sufficient to determine consensus, the opposers' arguments must be significantly stronger than that of the supporters in order to overcome such a substantial majority.

In evaluating the strength of arguments, my task is to give weight to all reasonable interpretations of the applicable policies and guidelines, and not to favor my own preferred interpretation. While it is true that BLP, as a policy, prevails over guidelines in case of a conflict, the meaning of BLP, when the policy text is ambiguous, is subject to interpretation by community consensus. Readings inconsistent with the plain text of the policy and/or guidelines should, of course, be accorded little weight, but it is very possible for the same policy text to have multiple reasonable interpretations. The closer's task is to give weight to all those interpretations, and not to impose his own preferences.

Turning to the discussion here,

Many supporters cite

To the extent harm to Mr. Santorum has been discussed, I cannot say that the opposing side has the stronger argument. The website in question is already among the top Google search results for "santorum", and the subject of this article has been widely discussed in reliable sources; the harm caused by inclusion of the link cannot be said to be substantial.

The crucial issue here, then, is the tension between

In examining the text of the policy, it is important to note

The !votes in the discussion appear to roughly equate to 73% in support of the use of the link. Of the supporters, the largely quoted policy is

In evaluating the strength of arguments, our task is to give weight to all reasonable interpretations of the applicable policies and guidelines, and not to favor our own preferred interpretation. It is true that BLP policy prevails over the external links guideline in case of conflicts; however, the meaning of BLP, when the policy text is ambiguous, is subject to interpretation by community consensus. Readings inconsistent with the plain text of the policy and/or guidelines should, of course, be accorded little weight, but it is very possible for the same policy text to have multiple reasonable interpretations. The closer's task is to give weight to all those interpretations, and not to impose his own preferences.

We first address the weaker arguments:

• The NOFOLLOW argument appears to suffer from serious defects on both sides of the argument. Although Wikipedia's links are NOFOLLOW, there are hundreds of sites that mirror Wikipedia that do not put NOFOLLOW in their links, and that fact is properly taken into account in evaluating the harm caused by inclusion of the link. That said, the spreadingsantorum site is already highly ranked on Google without help from Wikipedia, and for the reasons discussed below, it is unlikely that the harm caused by inclusion of the link will be substantial.
• We do not agree that
  WP:NOTCENSORED
  is a valid argument here, as it is not an obligation to provide certain information. Its purpose is to avoid removing information that may be construed as offensive or age-inappropriate.
• To the extent that some editors relied on
  WP:EL
  and therefore explicitly does not apply in cases of official websites under ELOFFICIAL.
• To the extent that some editors relied on
  WP:ELOFFICIAL
  as a reason to include the link, the argument is defective because ELOFFICIAL is clearly phrased permissively. It allows, but does not mandate, the inclusion of official links. Assuming that a link otherwise complies with our policies and guidelines, whether it is to be included is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment.

A fundamental aspect of the BLP policy is that we should avoid doing harm to living people. In considering the question of harm, the argument is "How much harm will this link cause to a living person?" When reading

We note that there is a strong argument that the article should either include the link or be nominated for deletion, on the basis that (A) the article and the link are not on two different sides of some distinct line except in interpretations of the letter of

The other important issue in the discussion is the tension between

In examining the text of the policy, it is important to note

With the above considered, the arguments on both sides appear equal in strength. It is our opinion that there is more support for and that the consensus of the discussion favors providing a clickable external link as an official website of the subject of the article.