[WikiEN-l] Are phone books reliable sources?

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

Celebrities move. Phone books get outdated.
Besides, there's more people with the same last name. A phone book is a bad
source when you want the address for a specific person. All it gives is the
last name.

Mgm


On 5/27/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>
> On 5/26/06, Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
> > When we choose to publish facts on private people
> > versus public people, for example, is a judgment call about how
> > "notable" they are---not anything to do with verifiability, as many
> > private/non-notable people have information about them verifiable from
> > e.g. phone books.
>
> Actually, I'd dispute that a phone book is a reliable source.  It's
> pretty easy to get fake information into a phone book.  Also I'd say
> there usually isn't enough information in a phone book to uniquely
> identify a person anyway.
>
> I'd go so far as to say phone books are completely excludable as
> Wikipedia sources, regardless of whether the information is on a
> public or private person, famous or average, "notable" or
> "non-notable".
>
> Anthony
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