[WikiEN-l] The new verifiability policy

[jayjg]

On 3/2/06, slimvirgin at gmail.com <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/2/06, Jon <thagudearbh at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > This is succinct, to the point, and absolutely correct. It doesn't need
> development (keep things simple!).
> >
> >   All you need now is to get rid of the nonsense in the first half of
> the policy page referring to what the policy isn't, and stick to saying
> clearly what the policy is. At present the first third of the page just
> tells you WP's not looking for truth!!?!?!?!?!!!
> >
> But that's arguably the most important part of the policy, Jon. If
> people understand that the threshold for inclusion is verifiability,
> not truth, then they've grasped the essence of V and NOR.
> Unfortunately, lots of people just don't get it, which is why the
> point is made right at the top of the page.


And sometimes, when they do get it, they try to remove it from the policy?
Why?  Because they imagine that they (via Wikipedia) can actually
disseminate the TRUTH, and if it so happens that the TRUTH is only found in
their own head,  or "everyone knows it", or (at best) it is found on some
personal or blatantly propagandistic website, well, so be it.

There are plenty of websites out there that disseminate the TRUTH; e.g. The
Truth about Hell (http://www.av1611.org/hell.html), The Truth about George
W. Bush (http://www.thetruthaboutgeorge.com/), The Truth about Iraq (
http://www.thetruthaboutiraq.org/), The opposite Truth about Iraq (
http://www.truthaboutwar.org/home.shtml),  The Truth about Islam (
http://www.lamblion.com/New08.php), The opposite Truth about Islam (
http://www.twf.org/), oops, a different opposite Truth about Islam (
http://islamstrueface.blogspot.com/), The Truth about Black Helicopters (
http://zapatopi.net/blackhelicopters/), etc. - that last one is
intentionally funny, by the way, unlike the others, which are only
unintentionally so.

One of the brilliant things about Wikipedia is that it is not so arrogant as
to presume it can or should present "the TRUTH"; instead it presents
verifiable information from reliable sources, which is far more useful, and
almost always more truthful, than "the TRUTH".

Jay.