[WikiEN-l] WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 41, Issue 153

Tue Dec 19 10:14:30 UTC 2006

On 19/12/06, charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com
<charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Sarah wrote

> > The problem is that material we use as sources must be available to
> > the general public, and it's not clear that we can expect the public
> > to have access to a legal database.

> This is rather objectionable, as a type of argument. 'Available' to the 'general public' contains two very negotiable ideas. Few academic sources (in proportion to the total) are easily available to many (in proportion to the 6 billion total) of the world's inhabitants. Making a fuss about this is a sure route to a worse encyclopedia.
> I'd much prefer people (a) to take on board the general principle that acceptable sources are tied to the topic and level of coverage, and (b) to cross some of these bridges as and when they come to them, when there is some real reason to query material.

Indeed. Just because there is a grey area does NOT mean there is
somehow an overriding need to resolve it into black and white at all
cost to good sense.

- d.