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given the prevalence of age discrimination, it's disappointing that wikimedia didn't take the birth year down voluntarily yes, the data's available from other

by nqzero 11y ago

given the prevalence of age discrimination, it's disappointing that wikimedia didn't take the birth year down voluntarily yes, the data's available from other sources, but a prospective employer might not see that until after evaluating some other aspects of her work, and end up hiring her in a situation in which they wouldn't if they found her age immediately for that matter, i find wikimedia's prominent display of age for people in general to be a bit too forceful. is that really such a defining characteristic of a living person that it belongs in the highlight box ?

schoen 11y ago
A lot of newspapers in the U.S. will print the age of the subject of a story or interview as a standard part of their style. https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+25%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+25%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+26%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+26%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+27%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+27%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+28%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+28%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+29%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+29%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+30%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+30%22
- edward 11y ago
  Nice demo. You could optimize it down to a single link: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="said+smith%2C+18..75" https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="said+smith%2C+18..75"
  - schoen 11y ago
    Cool, thanks for the tip!
belorn 11y ago
If you are a employer spending billable time looking up people on wikipedia and facebook, would you not also have the budget to purchase a e-book, pay access to a registry with public data or get credit/police records? The age of the person is very likely to be included somewhere, especially if include it in the book.
cooper12 11y ago
Age itself doesn't really matter but I think having birth and death dates listed is really important because it tells you: 1) If the person is still living and 2) what era they lived in. Listing the age is just a natural byproduct of having the other two pieces of information and if it wasn't included conveniently in a box, could be easily calculated. I do agree that society in general puts a strange emphasis on age, as if whether someone is 30 years old matters vs someone who is 60. The only case where it's really relevant is that if they're living especially long, but then that would be mentioned in the article anyway.
- awqrre 11y ago
  According to your 2 points, only date of death would be important.
  - mitchty 11y ago
    Knowing when they were born helps know what age they grew up in. Knowing someone died is great, but how old were they when they died is just as important if not more so.
Jedd 11y ago
> given the prevalence of age discrimination, it's disappointing that wikimedia didn't take the birth year down voluntarily Consider how well the adoption of the Occlusion Method would work -- or rather, be received -- if applied to any other common adjective to discrimination. (Gender, (lack of) religion, race, redheadedness, etc) To be clear, I don't think trying to keep your age a secret is an effective way to either a) keep your age a secret, or b) decrease the prevalence of age discrimination. > for that matter, i find wikimedia's prominent display of age for people in general to be a bit too forceful. is that really such a defining characteristic of a living person that it belongs in the highlight box ? Who knows. It's two characters, though, that are easily skimmed over when reading, and presumably enough people find the information useful to warrant its presence.

by nqzero 11y ago

schoen 11y ago

A lot of newspapers in the U.S. will print the age of the subject of a story or interview as a standard part of their style. https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+25%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+25%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+26%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+26%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+27%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+27%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+28%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+28%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+29%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+29%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+30%22 https://www.google.com/#q=%22said+smith%2C+30%22

edward 11y ago
Nice demo. You could optimize it down to a single link: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="said+smith%2C+18..75" https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="said+smith%2C+18..75"
- schoen 11y ago
  Cool, thanks for the tip!

belorn 11y ago

If you are a employer spending billable time looking up people on wikipedia and facebook, would you not also have the budget to purchase a e-book, pay access to a registry with public data or get credit/police records? The age of the person is very likely to be included somewhere, especially if include it in the book.

cooper12 11y ago

Age itself doesn't really matter but I think having birth and death dates listed is really important because it tells you: 1) If the person is still living and 2) what era they lived in. Listing the age is just a natural byproduct of having the other two pieces of information and if it wasn't included conveniently in a box, could be easily calculated. I do agree that society in general puts a strange emphasis on age, as if whether someone is 30 years old matters vs someone who is 60. The only case where it's really relevant is that if they're living especially long, but then that would be mentioned in the article anyway.

awqrre 11y ago
According to your 2 points, only date of death would be important.
- mitchty 11y ago
  Knowing when they were born helps know what age they grew up in. Knowing someone died is great, but how old were they when they died is just as important if not more so.

Jedd 11y ago

> given the prevalence of age discrimination, it's disappointing that wikimedia didn't take the birth year down voluntarily Consider how well the adoption of the Occlusion Method would work -- or rather, be received -- if applied to any other common adjective to discrimination. (Gender, (lack of) religion, race, redheadedness, etc) To be clear, I don't think trying to keep your age a secret is an effective way to either a) keep your age a secret, or b) decrease the prevalence of age discrimination. > for that matter, i find wikimedia's prominent display of age for people in general to be a bit too forceful. is that really such a defining characteristic of a living person that it belongs in the highlight box ? Who knows. It's two characters, though, that are easily skimmed over when reading, and presumably enough people find the information useful to warrant its presence.