[WikiEN-l] Test case: policing content

Mon Mar 21 11:30:17 UTC 2005

Ray Saintonge wrote

> I consider citing sources to be far more important that no original 
> research.

Well, a much higher proportion of what is on WP will be wrong and 
embarrassingly so, because it was just one man's idea, than because it is 
unsupported by chapter and verse.

It clearly depends where you sit, and Ray was talking about Wiktionary in 
particular.

But I do worry, now, that the contemporary-politics-and-history issues are 
driving policy which then is supposed to apply WP-wide.  It seems clear that 
the most bitter and generic disputes are going to be along those faultlines. 
Those involved use policy instrumentally, where I much prefer to see it as a 
style guide: write within policy, but still try to write well and 
attractively.

The point here surely is that even with stringent policies, WP can hardly 
expect to transcend completely the intellectual scuffling outside its walls.

Charles 