[WikiEN-l] Nuke [[WP:CITE]] and [[WP:RS]]

[Ray Saintonge]

Phil Sandifer wrote:

>On Jan 25, 2007, at 2:42 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:
>
>  
>
>>>If Susan can make the edit from memory, we're good.
>>>      
>>>
>>No, we're not good. That's the whole point. People's memories were
>>reliable enough when Wikipedia first started and nobody actually used
>>it for anything. That's no longer the case. If we want to be a
>>credible encyclopedia, we need our facts to come from reliable sources
>>(citing them isn't the important part, that's just a way to prove the
>>important bit - that the fact came from a reliable source).
>>
>>There seems to be a serious misunderstanding of what "source" means. A
>>source isn't somewhere people can go to verify the fact, it is where
>>the fact came from. Citing sources is easy, because you will always
>>have the source with you when you write the article (if you think you
>>don't, then it means the source is your memory, in which case you
>>aren't using a reliable source and shouldn't add the fact). The
>>problem isn't that people aren't citing reliable sources, the problem
>>is that they aren't *using* reliable sources.
>>    
>>
>You are advocating the complete abandonment of the principles that  
>underly Wikipedia.
>
>"You can edit this page right now." That's the mantra. That's the  
>key. That's what got us where we are. It's foolish to give up on the  
>thing that made us succeed where other things (Nupedia) failed.
>
This is a fundamental problem with volunteer based organizations, 
particularly ones that are highly democratized.  The first wave comes 
with the visionaries who see what needs to be done to produce a great 
product.  The later wavefills in the blanks, it tries to protect what 
the first wave produced, but in doing so destroys the vision.  The mass 
of Elvis personators cannot be combined to create a new Elvis.

Ec