[WikiEN-l] The new verifiability policy

[Ben Lowe]

This reminds me of an excellent quotation from *Raiders of the Lost
Ark*which, slightly modified, seems apropos: "(Encyclopedia writing)
is the
search for *facts,* not *truth.*"  (And then Indiana Jimbo goes and finds
the Lost Encyclopedic Reference of the Pharaohs before the Nazis can, I
don't know, speedy delete [[Allies of World War II]].)

On 3/2/06, jayjg <jayjg99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
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