[WikiEN-l] Pseudoscience and pseudohistory

Thu Jun 30 18:57:20 UTC 2005

>From: Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net>
>
>Establishing the truth of a proposition, however obvious, as this is,  is 
>not the purpose of Wikipedia, nor the purpose of categories.  Categories 
>are an aid to the reader to in finding information.
>
>To take an example from a current arbitration case (Yoder); He  removed the 
>category "Geography of Israel" from the article on Golan  Heights. His view 
>was that having the article in that category  established or somehow 
>endorsed Israel's annexation of the Golan  Heights. However the purpose of 
>the category is to point the reader  to the articles which have information 
>which falls into the category,  not to establish a fact.

Just to clarify, Fred is referring to User:Yuber.

Jay.

>
>Likewise [[cold fusion]] may be included in the Category Pseudo- science, 
>without us knowing whether or not it can occur. It is enough  that a the 
>category is a useful guide to the reader. That can mean  that articles may 
>fall into contradictory categories, as it is not an  exercise in logic but 
>in finding information.
>
>Fred
>
>On Jun 30, 2005, at 10:00 AM, Haukur Þorgeirsson wrote:
>
>>And if someone uses Wikipedia in 50 years to demonstrate
>>to her friend that Creationism is pseudo-science that's
>>fine too. Because it is.
>
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