[WikiEN-l] Citationgate: expertise and verifiability

[Nathaniel Sheetz]

On 9/29/06, Mak <makwik at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've just attempted to explain why having inline citations can be
> misleading. If a fact is widely agreed on, and you ascribe it to a single
> source or author, it makes it seem as though that person is the sole
> proponent of that idea, when in fact pretty much everyone in the field is
> in
> agreement.


You don't have to list just one person in the citation.  What's wrong with
including <ref>This is accepted by virtually all scholars, including
Einstein in ''Book X'', Murphy in ''Article Y'', and Jones in "Article
Z''.</ref>  Then put the bibliographic information in the references
section, as usual.

Also, in response to the original post, citations do more than just serve as
a way to verify the facts of an article.  They also show where the material
came from, which is helpful for anyone doing research on a topic (high
school, college, etc.) who can't directly cite Wikipedia (not many teachers
allow that).  Our articles need to be written so that they can be used by as
many people as possible, and I think that one way to do that is to
religiously cite sources.

Nathaniel ([[User:Spangineer]], a real nuisance to many on FAC when it comes
to citations)