[WikiEN-l] Rules, expertise, and encyclopedic standards

Wed Mar 9 01:51:18 UTC 2005

Ray Saintonge wrote:

>> Ray - Jay is correct in his description of original research. His
>> point is simply that deduction (that is, drawing a conclusion from a
>> set of premises) should not be used by editors to make a point not
>> already made in a credible publication.
>
> This sounds like an argument for the commandment, "Thou shalt not think."

When it comes to Wikipedia, that's a pretty good commandment.  Original 
thinking on matters of content is beyond the scope of the 
encyclopedia---we're here just to summarize the thinking that's already 
been done.  We're also particularly ill-equipped to judge novel 
thinking.  If you make a novel historical argument, citing dozens of 
sources in the process, you should submit it to a history journal to be 
peer-reviewed, not to us.

-Mark