[Foundation-l] Enforcing WP:CITE

Wed Nov 30 05:58:41 UTC 2005

In light of the recent USA Today article:

In the same way that we are currently enforcing proper image tags using 
a bot, could we do the same with unsourced articles? Start out by 
placing {{unsourced}} in all the articles lacking sources, and then, if 
it is not sourced in a week, create something like the {{copvio}} 
page-replacer to hide the unsourced content (the entire article), 
explaining with a detailed message that the article must be thoroughly 
sourced.

In my mind, at least, it doesn't seem like there should be any 
difference between enforcing sources for images and sources for 
articles. If anything we should be enforcing the latter more, since 
articles form the basis of the encyclopedia. I know this won't solve 
everything, but I think it should be a vital part of Wikipedia; since we 
do not know who edits an article, we need to know that it is based on 
information that we can verify ourselves.

brian0918