[WikiEN-l] Re: WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 17, Issue 16

[Robert Graham Merkel]

On Sun, Dec 12, 2004 at 01:30:24AM +0000, wikien-l-request at Wikipedia.org wrote:
> > What we need is to encourage a culture of including references.
> 
> I'm happy if I can get a good book or two referenced, and an external link
> or so to corroborate.  I am totally against having to footnote everything.
> That is a lame way to have to write - training wheels for Ph.D. students.
> 
> Basic point for me, in fact becoming fundamental: WP is not an academic
> institution, and can't afford 'guild restrictions'.  Leaving the question of
> what it is.
> 
I understand your objection, and note another one from a different
perspective: Adam Carr, a history 
academic who has been a profilic and high-quality contributor to the 
Australia-related articles, notes that often his work is the
distillation of hundreds of different things he has read on the topic.
This is particularly the case with articles on broader topics.  Trying
to footnote all of this is very, very difficult.

Notwithstanding this, referencing is *essential*.  How else are we 
supposed to fact-check the Wikipedia?

-- 
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                                           Robert Merkel
                                     robert.merkel at benambra.org
                                        http://benambra.org

The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job
to interpret law.
  -- George W. Bush
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