On 5/17/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/17/06, Anthony DiPierro
<wikilegal(a)inbox.org> wrote:
I actually don't think finding good sources or referencing is
particularly hard, it just isn't very well suited to the current wiki
software. When writing an academic paper finding sources and writing
the actual text is two separate steps. Wikis jumble the two very
different steps into one.
<elitist>
I believe it's hard for the "average person". Anyone who hasn't been
to
university is pretty unlikely to suddenly develop research skills and the
ability to go to a library and look up journal articles.
</elitist>
Nowadays you don't even have to go to a library to look up journal
articles. Wikipedians must be getting the information they put into
articles from somewhere, and I find it hard to believe that more than
a miniscule portion of it is straight from their memory.
The ad hoc system in place now is completely backwards. You're
supposed to get your sources first, *then* write the article. Believe
it or not I'm completely in agreement with Jimbo that unsourced
material should not be in Wikipedia articles. But just telling people
to do a better job or "be kicked out of the project just for being
lousy writers" is not a very productive way of achieving that.
Anthony