On 7/11/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
For example, a
lot of people get knowledge of things from television,
friends, parents, family, local newspapers, blogs, teachers, etc., all
of which are unacceptable or difficult to reference.
Maybe you only learn things from proper sources, but if so, you would
be the exception.
I know plenty of things that I haven't got from reliable sources. I
don't use that knowledge to write Wikipedia articles, though. Writing
an article based on personal knowledge violates our policy of only
using reliable sources.
That is unreasonable, unenforceable, and not in any way what the policy states.
"The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth.
"Verifiable" in this context means that any reader should be able to
check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a
reliable source. Editors should provide a reliable source for
quotations and for any material that is challenged or is likely to be
challenged, or it may be removed."
That's very different from "If you didn't learn something from a
source you can properly reference, you may not add that knowledge to
Wikipedia, even if such a source exists."