[WikiEN-l] The vexed issue of sources

[Thomas Dalton]

> With respect to sources for Star Trek episodes: how did the
> contributing editors have access to those episodes?
>
> I've said before and still feel that if the episodes are available on
> commercially purchasable videos, they have been "published" in a way
> that is comparable to a print book.

I've never understood why people have suggested otherwise.

> So I believe that movie and TV episodes should be referenced to
> published DVDs, _with proper identification_ (ASIN number or
> publisher and catalog number) and _the time, to the minute_ at which
> the line of dialog or event occurs.

When we cite books, we usually specify publisher and edition, so doing
the same for DVDs etc seems reasonable. I'm not sure if we require
page numbers for book sources, if we don't we shouldn't require
timestamps for DVDs (although they would be good).

> If the episode has _not_ been published on commercial videos, then
> IMHO it is not verifiable. Of course, published print sources that
> describe the episode are fine.

There is certainly an issue with things that have been broadcast but
not released on DVD or equivalent. If we reject broadcast sources (as
impossible to verify, which they are), then we have to delete all
episode summaries and other articles relating to episodes that haven't
been released on DVD, which can often take a long time. There's a
limit to how much you can write just using secondary sources (for
example, can we cite Memory Alpha in a Star Trek article?). If it
weren't for copyright law, we could just link to a torrent...