[WikiEN-l] Are phone books reliable sources?

[Steve Bennett]

The surname "Ng" is one of the most common in Melbourne, spanning 47
pages of the 2006 phone book...

Steve

On 5/29/06, Joe Anderson <computerjoe.mailinglist at googlemail.com> wrote:
> I would be interested to see how a phonebook would be used as a source.
>
> On 5/29/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> >
> > Anthony DiPierro wrote:
> >
> > >On 5/26/06, Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >>When we choose to publish facts on private people
> > >>versus public people, for example, is a judgment call about how
> > >>"notable" they are---not anything to do with verifiability, as many
> > >>private/non-notable people have information about them verifiable from
> > >>e.g. phone books.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >Actually, I'd dispute that a phone book is a reliable source.  It's
> > >pretty easy to get fake information into a phone book.  Also I'd say
> > >there usually isn't enough information in a phone book to uniquely
> > >identify a person anyway.
> > >
> > >I'd go so far as to say phone books are completely excludable as
> > >Wikipedia sources, regardless of whether the information is on a
> > >public or private person, famous or average, "notable" or
> > >"non-notable".
> > >
> > While I acknowledge that most phone book information has very limited
> > value, but it is easy to imagine situations where that would not be the
> > case.
> >
> > Ec
> >
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>
>
> --
> Joe Anderson
>
> [[User:Computerjoe]] on en, fr, de, simple, Meta and Commons.
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