[WikiEN-l] We aren't here to write an encyclopaedia, are we?

Wed Jan 25 15:28:14 UTC 2006

We want you to enforce WP:CITE but not to use it to delete blocks of  
information. Start with something that seems dubious. Ask for a cite,  
delete it if neither you nor anyone else can find a source. Don't  
jump in and say the whole thing is no good. I did that once at  
Kennedy assassination theories. Didn't accomplish much. Still no  
decent sources, but a least a notice saying that we ought to find some.

Fred

On Jan 24, 2006, at 11:22 PM, Guettarda wrote:

> I have decided to try to clean up the [[List of ethnic slurs]]  
> article -
> it's a mess of uncited and apparently unverifiable information.  In  
> trying
> to get the ball rolling I have been opposed at (almost) every turn  
> by an
> editor whose view of Wikipedia seems to be:
>
> "''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged  
> defines
> an encyclopedia as 'a work that treats comprehensively all the various
> branches of knowledge and that is usually composed of individual  
> articles
> arranged alphabetically'. Thus, in Wikipedia--the largest  
> encyclopedia ever
> created--any knowledge can be included. Stroll by a library reference
> section and you will find encyclopedias of agriculture, of  
> computing, of
> 'slang,' and so on. This article shows just how much encyclopedic  
> Wikipedia
> is."
>
> I tried to counter this with policy - WP:V, WP:CITE, and "Wikipedia  
> is not
> an indiscriminate collection of nformation" to which I received the
> following reply:
>
> "In any case, I'd encourage you not to live your life based on  
> regulations,
> because life is too complicated to regulate. To do so makes one a
> [[wiktionary:simpleton|simpleton]]. In any case, regulations must be
> interpreted, and the consensus of the Wikipedia community appears  
> to be that
> the rules should not be enforced. Since you are the first editor I  
> have ever
> met to actually try to enforce these rules, you are in uncharted  
> terrritory,
> for sure."
>
> While this editor is relatively new s/he is not a total newbie - s/ 
> he has
> over 1300 edits, been editing for several months.  While I realise  
> that WP:V
> and WP:CITE tend to only get a lot of attention in content disputes  
> (the
> Intelligent design article being the one where I have seen it most)  
> the idea
> that "the consensus of the Wikipedia community appears to be that  
> the rules
> should not be enforced" just boggles the mind.  While this editor  
> appears to
> live at the opposite end of the world from the AFD addicts, I  
> suspect that
> both of these are symptoms of an underlying problem of people who  
> don't
> appear to be here to write a high-quality encyclopaedia.  Suddenly  
> I long to
> argue with POV-pushers -  I would rather argue the validity of  
> references
> than have someone tell me that consensus is that we don't need  
> references...
>
> Wow.
>
> Ian
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