[WikiEN-l] {{unreferenced}} tag?

[Daniel Mayer]

--- slimvirgin at gmail.com wrote:
> David, I see no reason not to put {{Cite Sources}} on the article
> itself. There's no point in putting it on the Talk page because it's
> not the Talk page that needs the references. ;-)  Like the neutrality
> tag, it's a warning to the reader, in this case that the article has
> not been properly sourced. I think either that one or your
> {{unreferenced}} tag would be a good thing to use on some articles.
> Yes, I can think of quite a few. ;-)

The talk page is where editors interested in the article hang out. While the
*great majority* of people visiting the article are readers only. Thus putting
such a message on talk pages is directing the message to the group of people
most likely able to fix the issue. 

This is not the same as an {{NPOV}} tag - which is both a call to arms for
editors and a warning to readers. An {{unreferenced}} tag is just a call to
arms for editors - the article itself is much more likely than not to contain
as accurate of info as any other encyclopedia even without references (and
every encyclopedia I've ever used does not have references anyway). 

Don't get me wrong - I think that references are very important. But instead of
adding a tag for something that is obvious to anybody looking at the article,
why don't people find references that can be used to confirm at least some of
the information in articles? Developing those skills are much more important
than encouraging the mindless adding of tags. 

-- mav

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