[WikiEN-l] The new verifiability policy

[charles matthews]

Slim Virgin wrote

> The editors on a page are not allowed to reach a consensus to include
> original research, just as they're not allowed to decide to ditch
> NPOV. NOR and NPOV do override consensus.

But drive-by edits are not policy, and are never going to be policy, in 
contentious matters.  It is completely sound policy that edits which cannot, 
in the medium term, be supported by good sources cannot stand on the page. 
My concern, and I see it too often, is that material is cut because it is 
unsourced, and only because of that.

Best efforts may be needed to find sources for queried statements.  The page 
history may reveal something serious about why something appears to be 
without a leg to stand on.  It is naive to think that good policies are not 
used to 'win' edit wars, in a way that is not at all a win for the 
encyclopedia.

The fact that proper efforts to get consensus versions of page cannot be so 
tightly defined - where's the acronym? - does not mean that the policy that 
we edit collectively is trumped.  We need to take care on this.  The 
'instrumentalist' view, that policy is to be used to rule one's own edits 
in, and the edits of others out, is a menace, in fact.

Charles