On 11/28/06, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:

I see no reason why we should be flexible about sources. If it hasn't got sources it can be deleted, regardless whether this is a policy or a guideline. It may be kept if someone bothers to find the sources the author should have included, but that might not happen.

<snip> I agree. As a matter of practicality, finding sources after the fact of writing, especially if you're not intimately familiar with the topic, is much more difficult than just including the original sources in the first place, and is probably less accurate. Even a 'further reading' section is more helpful than no sources whatsoever. I've been working on sourcing old articles on and off for a while, and it's an uphill battle; there are plenty of people willing to tag articles as unverified, but far fewer it seems are willing to sit down & do the research to come up with sources.

At any rate, this seems like a good time to remind people of the resources for sourcing that exist:

* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Fact_and_Reference_Check]] provides links to the unsourced catagories, discussion & directions * [[Wikipedia:Citation_templates]] -- some templates for sources, which I haven't seen in wide use yet; a corollary to * [[Help:Footnotes]] fun with footnotes * [[Wikipedia:Newspapers_and_magazines_request_service]] -- participants will try and get you an electronic copy of an article, if you come up with the citations, can also do some database checking as well (this project needs to have life breathed into it again, and more participants) * [[Wikipedia:Research_resources]] is marked as "historical", but there are still many good resources there for research on many topics; should be expanded & made current.

If there are other relevant pages (besides the policies themselves) I would love to know about them.

And finally, don't forget that fact-checking questions -- "I need a reliable source to find out exactly when General Custard died" and so on -- are precisely the sort of thing reference librarians tend to thrive on. And more and more public libraries are offering chat reference nowadays... -- phoebe