[WikiEN-l] insist on sources

[Guettarda]

On 7/19/06, Mathias Schindler <mathias.schindler at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> There is no such thing as over-referencing. There is no such thing as
> "common knowledge" regarding encyclopedic content. If it feels "common
> knowledge", it may be lacking relevancy at least in a certain context.


Actually there are times when leaving something as "common knowledge" is
better than providing a source.  Recently there was a discussion at
[[Evolution]] about a statement to the effect that evolution was considered
to be responsible for the vast diversity of living things and whether to
source that statement.  It's very easy to find someone who has said that,
but to source it to anyone in particular could be misleading because it
implies that there is some special relationship between the idea and the
source.  If something is common knowledge it should only be sourced if the
sourcing helps to establist the origin or development of the idea.  Just
sticking in a source at random can be misleading.