On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 10:33:36PM -0400, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
We've often dealt with this sort of research on the NOR talk page. The consensus is, that this is not acceptable. Sources must be fixed in permanent media. A telephone call is not such a source.
Of course it isn't a source that can be cited in the article. On the ther hand, if an editor I trust says they called and got the scoop, I would take that into account on a talk page.
We have to avoid taking the limitations on sourcing for articles and applying them to our entire editorial process. That's the wiki equivalent of teenagers taking reasonable skepticism and trying to apply it to every mundane aspect of their lives.
- Carl