[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment: referencing

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Tom Morris <tom at tommorris.org> wrote:
> On Thursday, November 3, 2011, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Backlogs as a concern translate directly to "newbies are inherently a
> problem."
>>
>>
>
> I'd disagree. Newbie treatment is important, but having quarter of a
> million articles without a single reference is also important given WP:V.
>

I think there are ridiculous extremes on both sides. I agree that on an
esoteric subject, which genuinely isn't covered by the mainstream
publishers to a relevant degree, no references is a problem. A problem
that can be overcome by digging into esoteric libraries and people who
study esoteric stuff. Like Newton's Occult studies, which are just today
getting the proper attention from mainstream historians.

In the middle ground there are egregious cases like [[Aharon Kotler]]
being nominated for deletion because there were no references on
the article itself, but trivial googling would reveal him to be the most
relevant proselytizer of Judaism in the history of the USA. It was
snowball kept, but following WP:V slavishly it would have to have
been deleted.

And then there are the real hard tough cases, where the pedal really
hits the metal. Like the founder of the furries movement. Wikipedia has
loads and loads of articles on furry subjects, but not on the guy who
started it all. Because he is a modest guy, and worked in an alternative
medium, close to zero third party references might be found. His article
survived one deletion debate, but was deleted completely out of process
summarily in contravention of WP:BLP (there were nlo disparaging
statements in the article so at least it should have been subjected to
another *sigh* deletion debate, rather than being deleted summarily
outright). Tonyt Sideaway can back me up on this, if he is still reading
this list, but the creator of Albedo Anthropomorphics is a genuinely
notable figure in the furry movement; if not its father or atleast god-father.



-- 
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Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]