[WikiEN-l] Re: Turn off AfD

Tue Dec 13 13:19:25 UTC 2005

On 12/13/05, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/13/05, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 12/13/05, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
> > >
> > > G'day Toni,
> > >
> > > > On 12/13/05, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>On 12/13/05, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>>On 12/13/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> > > >>>>In all fairness Googling, then adding the information is a lot of work.
> > > >>>
> > > >>>It's a couple of minutes.  And at the end of it you have a useful
> > > >>>article instead of a hole in the ground.
> > > >>
> > > >>Nocking out people on RC patrol for couple of minutes soon results in
> > > >>the loss of RC patrol as they are all of researching stuff.
> > > >
> > > > Goodness, editors of an encyclopedia performing research!  We can't
> > > > have that!  Anybody would think we wanted to be as good as Britannica
> > > > or something!
> > >
> > > You know exactly what geni meant.  This sort of cheap shot helps nobody.
> > >
> >
> > I'm sorry that you see it as a cheap shot; it's rather the reverse.  I
> > regard the argument that research prior to deletion would detract from
> > recent changes patrolling as utterly indefensible.  I find it
> > difficult to believe that anyone would seriously attempt to defend it.
>
> Why? We've seen the cost of a failed RC patrol. If you want to put an
> article on wikipedia doing a minium of research yourself is not too
> much to ask.

I have to agree with geni here.  The problem is that the research time
required by the two parties is so utterly asymetrical.  Even if you're
writing an article from the top of your head, it's obviously something
you know a lot about, and you'd have a much easier time finding a
reference than some random edit patroller.  If nothing else it's
common courtesy to save the rest of us time researching your article.

C'mon, it's not like I'm asking for every single fact to be
referenced.  Adding a single reference to every single article is just
not a big deal.

And yes, I myself have started articles without listing references.  I
did it because I'm lazy and there wasn't a rule against it.  We've
gotta stop lazy people like me.

Anthony