Michael Turley wrote:
I wanted to add to my own post that Britannica and
Encarta and similar
others can get away with far fewer references and sources is because
they aren't wikis. Everyone working on the publicly visible portions
of product are paid professionals who lose their paychecks if they're
not reliable and credible. We don't have that particular "luxury", so
we need to cite sources and provide references.
That's certainly true, but references are also useful in their own
right---providing references is a great way to point people to further
reading. Even if I trusted 100% that the fact were correct and so
didn't need a reference to verify it, it'd still be nice to know where
it came from.
-Mark