[WikiEN-l] Deterioration: losing references

[Ryan Delaney]

On 4/10/06, Daniel P. B. Smith <wikipedia2006 at dpbsmith.com> wrote:
>
> The edit history usually shows that what seems to be happening is
> very sloppy editing, particular in rewriting or restructuring parts
> of articles. Sometimes people will remove a sentence they think is
> wrong and inadvertently remove an adjacent reference. Sometimes
> people remove an item but not the reference that supports it.
> Sometimes people remove a reference but not the item it supports.
> Sometimes people remove an item and its reference, then later someone
> reinserts the item but fails to reinsert the reference...
>

Okay, I think I see what you are getting a here. Some edits are deleterious.
Sometimes good content is deleted and never restored. I guess that all I can
do in response to that is to shrug and say that's the downside of open and
free access; mistakes get made. I don't think there is anything to be done
about it really, except try to correct each other's mistakes where we find
them.

Ryan