[WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)

Wed Dec 20 15:35:04 UTC 2006

On 12/20/06, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 3. Sarah points out the following text from WP:NOR :
> >       "anyone--without specialist knowledge--who reads the
> >       primary source should be able to verify that the Wikipedia
> >       passage agrees with the primary source. Any interpretation
> >       of primary source material requires a secondary source."
> >   That seems to be broken.  Examples of specialist knowledge
> >   which might be required are the ability to read a foreign
> >   language and the ability to understand mathematical notation.
> >
> >   Someone who can read music should be able to report from
> >   a musical score that it is in E-flat, even though that requires
> >   specialist knowledge.  What the policy *should* require
> >   (somehow) is that anyone who can read music will agree that
> >   the score is in E-flat.  The fundamental skills of the field
> >   should be assumed, and the policy should reflect that, imo.

In all seriousness, I think the policy should be that any special knowledge
needed to understand the article should be included somewhere in Wikipedia.
For example, the above knowledge is included at [[key signature]] and at
[[E-flat major]].

Thus if the example article read

"The [[key (music)|key]] of the score is [[E-flat major]]<ref>[link to
score]</ref>..."

Any person with the knowledge contained at those links would be able to
understand the reference.