2009/8/14 <[email protected]>: > editing. You might find 200 online sources that state that Mary of Parma was > born > in 956, but I can show that none of these are realiable sources. My own > opinion on when she was born has nothing to do with anything, sources are what > matters.
The problem comes not in finding sources, but in establishing due weight, convincing anyone that a crank idea is a crank idea and so forth. Most usually, it's when an expert is arguing with a crank and the crank won't be satisfied until the expert proves a negative - there's no great sources that the crank idea is a crank idea because only the cranks even bother talking about it. Often, the expert goes "bugger this, I have better things to do." Even quite patient experts have a limited tolerance for idiocy. For an extreme case, look at the first global warming arbitration case, where the cranks got together to try to get one of the UK's top climate scientists voted off the island. Fortunately, the AC had the presence of mind to point out that peer-reviewed scientific papers are rather better encyclopedia sources than Rush Limbaugh show transcripts. And the expert in question also happens to be a rather good Wikipedian. Abd's proposed rule is pathologically anti-expert and would be disastrous for Wikipedia's content and its production process. - d. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
