Ray Saintonge wrote:
Walter van Kalken wrote:
Brian wrote:
As Danny has repeatedly mentioned, normal
published textbooks,
including encyclopedias, have every single fact cited and checked
before the publisher will go on with printing the book. These
citations aren't made public, but they are done, nonetheless. Why
should we be any different? This doesn't necessarily mean putting
1000 sources in the reference section. There are other options we
can consider, or new ways of citing content online, that are
different from the methods used in printed books.
Like instead of having the references in and under the article have a
seperate page like a talk page? And we just make "notes" which link
to the references on that "references"page?
Well, I think there
are better options to consider. One post that was
made here that has been pretty much ignored is linked below. I talked
with brion about this, and he said that he thought it would be a big
step in the right direction, although we should consider this option as
more of a starting point for branching off ideas, rather than the final
way it should be:
http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2005-December/005312.html
I especially like the option to include "cited text" and "paraphrase".
So, as his sample image shows, we can essentially cite every bit of an
article, thus becoming as sourced as any published book or encyclopedia,
but better!.. because our sources are public, whereas with Britannica,
you have to trust the word of the contributers (and the
typing/proofreading abilities of their staff). I'm not sure if I like
his "red box enclosing uncited text" scheme. Another possibility using
this method would be to lightly highlight text that is not sourced in
this way.
The page on which one chooses to put the quotes is
only an aesthetic
function. The important thing is that they are findable and public.
The purpose of citations is to give the reader the opportunity to
verify the data for himself. He can't do that if the citations are
not public.
Ec
Agreed completely. By working to have every bit of our text not only
cited, but to have their sources public, we would be moving beyond the
verifiability of other encyclopedias.
brian0918