On 12/8/06, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
For an edit to be verifiable it has to be
verifiable by someone other
than the person that made the edit. We're not talking about
reliability of sources - it's obvious that a TV show is a perfectly
reliable primary source - we're talking about whether someone else can
come along and check that what the original editor said is true
(assuming the source is right - a wikipedia article can never be more
reliable than the sources it uses). It's not necessary that everyone
be able to verify it, but a reasonable number of reasonably
unconnected people should be able to, otherwise we're open to any
number of hoaxes.
In fact, the policy is even stronger. [[Wikipedia:Verifiability]] says:
""Verifiable" in this context means that ***any reader*** should be
able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been
published by a reliable source." (emphasis mine)
I'm not sure if I agree with that policy, but that's what the policy says.
I'm sure I don't agree with it. I worked on the verifiability policy a while
ago to get it to a rational place. Clearly *any reader* can't check every
source used on Wikipedia -- some people just don't have access to the
Widener Library, for example, or read French.
"Any reader" cannot verify that Cmdr. Pickett gets eaten by a Florgbernian
Rumpox in Stargate episode 23 if said Stargate episode
isn't publicly
available for viewing.
We had been talking about commercially available, not publicly available.
Those are two different things.