[WikiEN-l] Arbitration Committee Seeking Comment

[Matt Brown]

On 6/6/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Sean Barrett wrote:
> > Why are old Soviet records "original research" while old US records
> > (NVR, DANFS, &c.) are okay?
> 
> I'm not saying that they are, just that somebody is bound to try to make
> that point.

It disturbs me that "No original research", originally intended to
prevent crackpot theories with no following being pushed on Wikipedia,
is starting to mutate into something quite different.

"Cite your sources" is fine.  "Provide your sources," though, is not. 
On many obscure topics, the sources WILL be difficult to locate.  Any
attempt to turn this requirement into having to provide sources that
can be requested from the average library or online will remove a
large number of very credible but obscure sources - specialist
publications, limited circulation journals, and many other documents.

-Matt (User:Morven)