[WikiEN-l] [[WP:V]] and [[WP:RS]] are destroying Wikipedia

[zero 0000]

> From: Phil Sandifer <Snowspinner at gmail.com>
>
> Obviously [[WP:V]] and (to a lesser extent) [[WP:RS]] are absolutely 

> vital policies that cannot be discarded. On the other hand, in their 
> current form they are abominations that fundamentally undermine key  
> aspects of Wikipedia's mission.

I'd like to thank Phil for his unusually thoughtful posting.
I'm not sure that I agree with all of it, but there is one point
that I want to emphasise.

> 1) They actively encourage removal of material that is accurate
> 
> Admittedly, our standard for inclusion is "verifiability, not truth."
> We ought not, however, fall into the trap of deciding that we are  
> therefore against truth. Our goal is to offer the sum total of human 
> knowledge. If information is true and significant, we ought be trying
> to find a way to get it in.

Hear! Hear!  The problem with the current policy, starting with that
appalling slogan "verifiability, not truth" is that it presents
verifiability
and truth as alternatives.  What on Earth are we doing here if we don't
care whether our articles are true or not?  (Before you tell me that we
do care, please find a statement to that effect on [[WP:V]].)  Why
can't
we have verifiability AND truth?

What the policy should say FIRST (in my humble opinion) is that we
at Wikipedia would love to have the most accurate and complete
encyclopedia in the galaxy.  That's the AIM.  Then it should say,
SECOND, that the task of approaching that aim is constrained
by the proven need to avoid certain serious problems (personal
research, material from dubious or unknown sources, etc) and
therefore we have established policies on which sources of
information can be cited, and guidelines on ranking of sources. 
Then those policies and guidelines can be explained.

I suggest that rewriting the policy in this fashion would avoid the
impression that in order to embrace verifiability we rejected truth.

Zero.

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