[WikiEN-l] Zero information is preferred to misleading or false information

[Jimmy Wales]

Steve Bennett wrote:
> I'm happy to be corrected, but I was under the
> impression that as long as we can convey that the information is not
> guaranteed accurate (by the use of cite tags), then "speculative"
> information is better than none.

Absolutely not.  Real people are involved, and they can be hurt by your
words.  We are not tabloid journalism, we are an  encyclopedia.

> As a reader, often you approach a topic knowing nothing at all. If
> Wikipedia can at least give you a broad outline of the topic with some
> clues as to where it fits with respect to other topics, then it's
> doing well. Whether or not it's a neutral, balanced and totally
> factually accurate article is a secondary concern to me, as a reader.

That can be true to a degree and in some cases, but this is not the sort
of thing that I am talking about at all.