[WikiEN-l] "Exclusion" essay

[Erik Moeller]

On 7/25/06, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> Hmmm.  Not what we're supposed to be for, though, is it?  Leading the
> pack in documenting things?  I thought we were supposed to collect
> information from reliable secondary sources?  Without novel syntheses?
[...]
> But we shouldn't be.  Unless we want to change our mission to being
> the *first* secondary source to document things neutrally from
> *primary* sources?

There is no policy against primary sources. In fact, [[WP:NOR]]
explicitly states: "Original research that creates primary sources is
not allowed. However, research that consists of collecting and
organizing information from existing primary and/or secondary sources
is, of course, strongly encouraged."

People have been overinterpreting WP:RS recently (which itself is a
guideline, not policy). This is a problematic trend.

Erik