[Foundation-l] Enforcing WP:CITE the Soi case

[SJ]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> SJ wrote:
>> On 11/30/05, Walter van Kalken <walter at vankalken.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> The Soi case.
>>> 
>>> On the Dutch wikipedia I wrote the article [[soi]]. It was also written
>>> on the english wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soi)
>>> 
>>> According to the CITE principal this article should be deleted right now
>>> 
>> 
>> Actually, a quick google search turned up a few relevant citations
>> (one from Wikitravel, in fact).  I added them to the English article. It is 
>> very very hard to find articles which are at once encyclopedic
>> and verifiable, but have no suitable reference either online or in
>> print.  I cannot think of an example atm.
>> 
>> ++SJ
>
> Hoi,
> I find it remarkable that this CITE thing may break one of our fundamental 
> reasons for success. It will drive people away when it is used as a tool to 
> justify deletions. Why will it drive people away, because it raises the entry

This should *never* be used to justify deletions.  Ever.  But it should be 
used to justify tagging articles as unsourced; or marking them for 
cleanup... just as we tag articles as stubs, or as unwikified blobs of 
text, when that is what they are.  Of course, writing more than 2 
paragrapyhs, or wikifying raw text, 'raises the entry level' -- so we do 
not require it.

But we *do* require it for 'good style' and acceptance into the circle 
of enlightened articlehood.


> Having citations is a good thing but please realise that it is best used when 
> controversies arise.

Having citations is fundamental to being a good reference work.

This is *not* ( I say it again ) related to deletion policy.

SJ