What's troubling is that, for ten months, Wikipedia not only asserted
that an island exists, but had an article documenting 'facts' about it.
That can't have a positive impact on our credibility. (Actually, it may
be that nobody knows, but the fact that they *could* is a problem that,
in my humble opinion, we need to take seriously.)
In keeping with tradition, I'd like to propose a technical solution that
everyone can ignore. ;-)
Suggestion: Automatically insert a suitable template into new/unsourced
text. I'd propose something similar to {{not verified}}.
Model 1: Have the Wiki automatically insert this template into text of a
new article in the main namespace.
Model 2: Have the Wiki automatically subst this template into the
beginning of all articles in the main namespace *unless* the article
contains at least one ISBN/external link/<ref>/etc.
There are pros and cons to each. Model 1 is easy for a determined hoaxer
to circumvent. Model 2 is trickier to implement, requiring either two
passes or a flag to maintain, but more robust. It would also have the
benefit (some might say drawback) of drawing attention to a lot of
*currently* unsourced articles.
Food for thought, anyway.
Jake
On Tue, 2006-10-03 at 08:43 -0400, Carl Peterson wrote:
On 10/2/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
wrote:
daniwo59(a)aol.com wrote:
The population statistics, making it Lebanon's third largest city, and
the claim that the population almost tripled since 1982 makes me wonder
how much of that population can be attributed to elephants. :-)
Wikiality in action, I tell you. Because Wikipedia (or at least one
Wikipedian) says it exists, it must exist. We can thank Colbert for giving
us the power to create whole islands (and a population of 300,000) just
because one of us wants it to exist. Now, by deleting the article, we have
doomed all these 300,000 people to death as the island resubmerges. :-)
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