[WikiEN-l] let's be honest then

[Phil Sandifer]

On Mar 31, 2007, at 7:24 PM, Kelly Martin wrote:

> On 3/31/07, Phil Sandifer <Snowspinner at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 1) The idea of an error-free encyclopedia is a pipe dream. No
>> sourcing requirements, no matter how onerous, will render us error-
>> free. Pursuit of an impossible goal at the expense of achievable ones
>> is foolish.
>
> This is a false dialectic.  It's not a binary choice; please stop
> presenting it as one.  Nobody expects an error-free encyclopedia, but
> a lot of us would like one with fewer errors than the one we have now.

Did you actually read the rest of my e-mail? Yes. Obviously we want  
to reduce errors. But trying to create iron-clad procedures is just  
going to cause more problems. "Let's remove all the unsourced  
information/delete all the unsourced articles" isn't an attempt to  
reduce error. It's an attempt to eliminate it,  and it will backfire  
grotesquely.

-Phil