On 4/11/03 6:19 PM, "Christopher Mahan" chris_mahan@yahoo.com wrote:
--- Lee Daniel Crocker lee@piclab.com wrote:
Yes, direct links without registration would be nice, but I wonder about the idea of encyclopedia articles linking to newspaper reports in general.
I have a twist on that notion.
Since when does an encyclopedia have to quote sources of its information? Isn't the point of an encyclopedia to be authoritative, a resource which is quoted by others?
I don't mind a link. I don't mind external resources. To me they fall under the "see also" heading.
As far as articles in development, yes, sources should be quotes to allow fellow editors to check and recheck and so on, but once the article is formalized, all that should just go to the talk page.
Makes sense?
It would if the premises were correct. It is true that the point of an encyclopedia is to be authoritative. But it does not follow that encyclopedias do not list references. Most do, in fact. They may call it "further reading" or somesuch, but they're references.
Moreover, traditional encyclopedias assert authoritativeness by having known experts write the entries.
For example, Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on baseball includes the following "further reading" (written in paragraph form in EB):
* Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig, The Image of Their Greatness: An Illustrated History of Baseball from 1900 to the Present, updated ed. (1984); * Lawrence S. Ritter (comp.), The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, new ed. (1984). * Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White (1970, reprinted 1984). * David Quentin Voigt, Baseball, an Illustrated History (1987) * The Official Baseball Guide, The Sporting News * Official Baseball Register, The Sporting News * Joseph L. Reichler (ed.), The Baseball Encyclopedia, 7th rev. ed. (1988). * Joe Brinkman and Charlie Euchner, The Umpire's Handbook, rev. ed. (1987). * Bill James and John Dewan, Bill James Presents the Great American Baseball Stat Book, ed. by Geoff Beckman et al. (1987)
and is written by Jerome Holtzman, "Baseball columnist, Chicago Tribune. Elected to the Writers' Wing, National Baseball Hall of Fame, 1990. Coauthor of Three and Two; editor of No Cheering in the Press Box; Fielder's Choice."
Since Wikipedia cannot assert authoritativeness based on the entries being written by experts (that's the Nupedia project, more or less), it can only do so through listing references.
References other than newspaper articles should generally be preferred, but they're better than nothing.