I'm not really seeing any solution in your words.
Would you then change policy to state that if an item is behind a
subscription wall, then it cannot be cited at all, regardless of
whether others can access it freely (with an existing subscription,
library card, or on site). Is that what you'd propose? If not, then
what?
Regardless of how many items go behind a subscription wall (provided
there is also a non-subscription way to access them in some manner),
there will always be some who have the subscription. In those cases,
the online link is only a convenience for those who can use it.
Will Johnson
-----Original Message-----
From: FT2 <ft2.wiki(a)gmail.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Fri, Aug 7, 2009 5:21 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Online Newspapers Considering Subscription Model
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 11:30 PM, <wjhonson(a)aol.com> wrote:
The problem of lack of availability has been with us
since the year
3000 BC. We can't solve every problem right away. That we can
specify
a citation stating that *if* you had a way to get the
item, you could
verify it, satisfies our policy requirement that an item is
"published"
(made available to the public).
Satisfaction of the guideline (or discussion) issue that an item
should
be widely available, would come from projects like
Gutenberg and
WikiSource for publication of things like books and from newspaper
archives or JSTOR for publication of things like newspapers and
magazines.
That something is not yet available online, shouldn't be a factor in
considering whether or not we should cite it. Even the library of
Bora
Bora *could* (theoretically at least) request a copy
of an item for
you, provided you have the citation and the repository location (see
worldcat.org).
Will Johnson
Agree with facts, disagree with conclusions. Policy exists to serve the
project. So we can't argue "from policy" on this one, the aim is still
high
quality content and policy is still the ever-evolving way to get it. At
present a high proportion of cites are checkable online. Not all, but
enough
to be viable if a proportion are not. Change that, and it may no longer
be
viable, because too many cites will be not readily checkable.
The issue I'd expect is much more, mis-citing - statements not in the
text,
or mischaracterized, that linger weeks or months because now
click-and-check
isn't operational and very few people will look up "New York Times 19
July
2009 P.4B" (however theoretically they can find a copy) whereas many
would
click the link.
So the /policy/ (if its in principle verifiable then it's fine) would
not
adequately support the /project need/ (mis cites can usually be detected
fairly quickly in practice) and it would be policy that needed to
change.
FT2
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