Reacting on Stephen Gilbert's "possible bug
report", I went through searching for other pages
that also contain w: links. As such I got to
[[Wikipedia:Cite your sources]]. And from the page
talk it seems that everyone but 24 agreed with it
at the time. Nowadays I see _no one_ citing sources
on a regular basis (or even an irregular basis).
Would it not be time to remove this 'Rule to
consider', or else at least change the 'Talk' page
such that it is clear that it is not a majority
opinion nowadays?
Andre Engels
I cite sources frequently, although I don't think that "cite your sources"
needs to be a general rule. If an expert like Axelboldt tells us something abouthis area
of expertise, I don't need to double-check him in his area of expertise.
But for controversial subjects -- particularly matters which are the object of historical
revisionism (medieval Poland) or political controversy (Palestine); or scientific theories
which have widespread but not unanimous support (evolution, global warming) -- citing
sources makes it much easier for readers to evaluate claims made in the article.
Often I have been able to end (or at least ameliorate) edit wars by suggesting to the
contending parties that they cite their sources. Usually they do so, leading to properly
attributed POV (X said Y, althogh P said Q) and the dust settles.
Ed Poor
-----Original Message-----
From: Andre Engels [mailto:engels@uni-koblenz.de]
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 2:54 AM
To: wikipedia-l(a)nupedia.com
Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Cite your sources?
Reacting on Stephen Gilbert's "possible bug report", I went through
searching
for other pages that also contain w: links. As such I got to
[[Wikipedia:Cite your sources]]. And from the page talk it seems that everyone
but 24 agreed with it at the time. Nowadays I see _noone_ citing sources on a
regular basis (or even an irregular basis). Would it not be time to remove
this 'Rule to consider', or else at least change the 'Talk' page such
that
it is clear that it is not a majority opinion nowadays?
Andre Engels
[Wikipedia-l]
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