Gurch wrote:
Steve Block wrote:
Bogdan Giusca wrote:
Maybe I spent too much time editing history articles, where the source credibility matters, but accepting blog/forum/usenet posts as valid sources would be a great mistake, IMO.
Go tell it to the Oxford English Dictionary then.
As far as I'm aware, the OED cites such sources as examples of words in use. In effect the OED is saying "this word was used in this document on this date", and citing the document itself to show this. This is not the same thing as providing a citation for a factual claim made in an article.
Isn't that the very definition of a primary source. Something we seem loathe to allow. We can't state that "these words were used in this document on this date". We can't state that this thing existed at this web address on this date. Sorry, but this is the same thing as providing a citation for a factual claim made in an article. The OED make the claim of a specific usage or first usage, and use web sources to provide the citation.