Steve Summit wrote:
With equal emphasis on the "edited in some
fashion to remove the
need" part, bearing in mind that in many cases the appropriate
edit is simply to remove the tag. Although many instances of
the {fact} tag are properly applied to surprising or dubious
facts which do need to be cited or removed, many others refer
to obvious facts or facts which are in fact supported by an
article's existing references. So (as ever) some care is needed
here; anyone who got the idea that "any fact left uncited for
7 days may/must be removed" would be setting themselves or the
encyclopedia up for a fall.
Yes, of course. My feeling here is that the fact tag is in essence a
request: "Could some other human look at this and confirm for me that
this sounds sketchy and either needs to be referenced or removed?" And
so there are (roughly) three possible responses: (1) reference it (2)
remove it (3) note (on the talk page, I think) that the fact tag was
removed because the claim is not, after all, sketchy.
--Jimbo