Mark Gallagher wrote:
G'day Steven,
After reading all of this, I only have one
question left...is the Register
ever considered a reliable source per WP:Notability? Is there some way we
can list it as being unsuitable for referencing?
/The Register/ is a tabloid. It's trashy, chatty, often interesting[0],
sometimes relevant, frequently inaccurate. So is /The Daily Telegraph/.
So is /The New York Post/. So is /The Daily Mail/.
For our purposes, the only major difference between /The Register/ and,
say, /The Herald Sun/ is that the Reg had the temerity to make mistakes
in an article about Wikipedia[1], instead of in every other article.
We really should be more objective in our evaluation. Putting The
Register on the same footing as these other publications doesn't help in
places where these publications are not regularly circulated. Indeed,
the broad online community may be more familiar with The Register than
with these dead-tree publications. Blanket claims that they are trashy
are not convincing to the critical thinker. Those claims are always
someone's POV.
I wouldn't trust it, but then I wouldn't trust
most tabloids. And there
are those who say the same about Wikipedia.
If they said anything else they wouldn't be doing their jobs.
Ec