Steve Bennett wrote:
On 3/1/07, 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.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't complaining about not being notified :)
I do like the change. "Verifiability" was always terribly ambiguous and misleading. It never meant you had to verify the facts. It meant that if someone else wanted to verify them, they had a starting point.
Exactly. Nothing more, nothing less.
But it didn't really mean that either.
Why not?
"Attributability" is much cleaner.
It looks like some kind of semantic game. Capable of being attributed? It suggests that we don't need to make an attribution, only assert that it is possible. Actually attributed statements (or attributions) are then verifiable.
Ec