[WikiEN-l] Philosophical question re sources

[Steve Bennett]

On 3/26/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Once a request has been made for verification, the original contributor
> has the primary burden of proof, but that does not prevent others from
> supplying proof if they so desire.  If the original statement is as
> patently ridiculous as the one you hypothesize, any attempt at rebuttal
> implies that there was something there worth rebutting, and the very act
> of initiating a rebuttal gives credibility to the original statement.

There have been a couple of attempts to give responsibility to the
original contributor, but I think it goes against the wiki concept. As
I see it, you contribute something to the encyclopaedia, and that's
where your responsibility ends (libel etc aside). If your contribution
is no good, someone can ask for sources. Someone else, who thinks the
contribution is good, can supply them.

Attempting to maintain a dialogue with the original contributor is
impractical (people don't necessarily stick around, or check the talk
page or whatever), and contributes to the misleading impression that
people "own" articles, or sections or whatever.

Steve