On 09/04/2008, woonpton@fastmail.fm woonpton@fastmail.fm wrote:
At the same time, I've come across a principle asserted in several arbitration decisions, to the effect that Wikipedia strives to be a serious, high-quality encyclopedia, and I'm confused. I can't tell whether Wikipedia intends to be a serious encyclopedia, or whether Wikipedia is "about verifiability, not about truth;" I don't see how Wikipedia can have it both ways, as long as the slogan is widely interpreted by editors to mean that Wikipedia values verifiability even at the expense of accuracy or credibility.
The arbcom tries not to write policy, but their understanding is worth quoting as a supporting statement for a sane approach, even if it doesn't have the winning power of a hand with four aces.
It's my impression that Wikipedia has become the platform of choice for ideas that have been rejected by most rational and educated people, and that are not respected in academic or otherwise reliable sources, to gain a measure of credibility and legitimacy, and that those whose purpose is to get this material included in the encyclopedia are using the slogan as a way of deflecting arguments against inclusion.
To some extent. [[Crank (person)]] used to have a great Bruce Sterling quote about this (which I've just restored to the article):
"There's supposed to be a lot of difference between the hurtful online statement "You're a moron," and the tastefully facetious statement "You're a moron :-)". I question whether this is really the case, emoticon or no. And even the emoticon doesn't help much in one's halting interaction with the occasional online stranger who is, in fact, gravely sociopathic. Online communication can wonderfully liberate the tender soul of some well-meaning personage who, for whatever reason, is physically uncharismatic. Unfortunately, online communication also fertilizes the eccentricities of hopeless cranks, who at last find themselves in firm possession of a wondrous soapbox that the Trilateral Commission and the Men In Black had previously denied them."
(http://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan....)
- d.