[WikiEN-l] The vexed issue of sources

[Alphax (Wikipedia email)]

Abigail Brady wrote:
> On 12/8/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>> Since there are only two such occasions it should not be difficult to
>> identify the two episodes.
> 
> Ah, but how do you source the fact that it isn't seen in any other episodes?
> This is not a facetious question by the way.
> 

Good point. One possibility is to source every episode which *doesn't*
show this happening, which is somewhat burdonsome. Another is to say
that it *did* occur twice (and source the episodes); discovery and proof
of other occurences is left as an exercise the reader. The third option
is to find a secondary source which claims this, and (again) let the
reader determine if it's valid or not; after all, we don't present The
Truth, only what is verifiable; and the fourth option is to just remove
the bloody thing as being too much of a pain in the proverbial.

> Do we have something against academic fraud: such as, say, adding
> something as a "Source", apparently without having read it, or even
> having a good idea of its contents from other sources,
> 

As in, a comeback against editors who do it? I think it's called
"blocked for subtle vandalism" :)

-- 
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