On 12/21/05, Steve Bennett <stevage(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It occurs to me that in academia, one occasionally sees "personal
correspondance" or "publication forthcoming" cited. Is there something
wrong with stating "The New York times gives Jim Smith's birthday as 24
May 1964, although Jim has stated that it's 24 May 1965[1]" where [1] is
Personal email to Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Nov 2005. It's verifiable in
the sense that you could always email Wikimedia and ask them if that's
true.
Steve
If it's a personal email to the Wikipedia Foundation, or to our lawyers or
something, then that's a different matter. The problem is that the Wikimedia
Foundation aren't the ones putting the facts in the articles. It's if
User:RandomName puts in a new date of birth and cites at the bottom
"Personal Correspondence". There's no way we can check if that's true,
and
there's no one to turn to if the article's subject starts demanding
corrections and accountability.
Sam
--
Asbestos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Asbestos