[WikiEN-l] Citation obsession

[Tim Starling]

John Lee wrote:
> Quite a few editors have been taking our requirement to cite sources to an
> extreme...whether this is good or bad, I don't know, but at any rate, it's
> starting to seep into the public consciousness:
> 
> http://bash.org/?757724
> 
> <CtrlAltDestroy> Here is my impression of Wikipedia.
> <CtrlAltDestroy> "There are five fingers on the human hand [citation
> needed]"

In most cases, the "citation needed" template {{fact}} has nothing to do
with the need to cite sources. It's just an ugly way to mark a statement
as dubious. It's a visible manifestation of that bubbling turmoil that
lies beneath the surface of wiki articles, the turmoil we call the "wiki
process". Like {{pov}}, or inconsistent sentences which express a point of
view and then discredit it in the same breath, these things are a flag to
the reader that this is no ordinary encyclopedia article.

There has always been conflict between our need to warn the reader that
what they are reading can't be trusted, and our desire for an ultimately
clean and professional presentation. Over time, Wikipedia has moved in the
former direction, towards bolder and more visible warnings, which is not
something I would have predicted back in 2003.

Personally I would prefer to see some movement in the other direction,
towards clean presentation. I understand that uglying up an article while
keeping your point in can be an attractive compromise to editors involved
in disputes. I certainly made similar compromises while I was an editor.
At least the use of templates should make it possible to remove these
notices in bulk from published versions of Wikipedia.

-- Tim Starling