On 2/28/07, Slim Virgin slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Steve, the merge process started about four months ago. It was a simple merge with no changes, and the list was informed. The aim was to get the two policies on one page, tighten the writing a little, and get rid of the word "verifiability." This was causing confusion for new editors because they thought it meant they had to check that material was true, which is what "verify" usually means, rather than simply checking that it had been published elsewhere.
The fewer pages new users need to read to get involved, the better, I think. Spreading it out over so many pages allows for an unfortunate amount of confusion and ambiguity (which isn't to say we can't leave room for judgement calls, but keeping the general guidelines and rationales of those judgement calls in one place seems like a net plus).
If there's one change I might bring up, has anybody discussed changing the page name? Possibly something a bit more intuitively descriptive, like [[Wikipedia:Attribute your sources]]? "Attribution" doesn't, in and of itself, imply what the page is about. Dunno. Minor thing, hopefully new users will figure it out quickly enough. Quick look didn't show if this had been discussed, but I didn't look everywhere.
Interesting to see a change in policy, regardless. Kudos to those who effected the revolution. I hope this works out well.
-Luna