[WikiEN-l] The vexed issue of sources

[Stan Shebs]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> You've just answered your own question.
>>     
>
> Getting lucky is hardly a good method of verifying something... If it
> can't be verified promptly then we have a problem.
>   
That's silly. Is verification not going to be prompt enough if I have to 
wait for the library's copy of a book to be returned, or horror of 
horrors, have to wait for interlibrary loan? Anyway, in these days of TV 
fan websites, one is hard-pressed to find a show that doesn't have a set 
of devotees that have complete collections of episodes that they'd be 
willing to pass along, strictly unofficially for scholarly purposes, of 
course. :-)

If the wouldbe verifier can't figure out how to follow the trail of 
bread crumbs that is a document's references, that person is not really 
competent to be doing the checking part.

Stan