[WikiEN-l] Attack Site Wars, Episode VII... The Return of the Essjay

[White Cat]

Google trends is not a reliable source. It never was and will never will be.

     - White Cat

On 6/29/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
>
> On 6/28/07, Rob <gamaliel8 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 6/27/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > > > You keep alluding to other reliable sources, but I
> > > > have yet to come across any.  What are they?
> > > >
> > > eSorn, the sex offender list, the court records, Fox Toledo...
> >
> > These are not encyclopedic sources.  What I mean by that is not that
> > they are unreliable and thus should not be used, since they are
> > obviously accurate as sources go.
>
> So, when you said that "no one has yet to come up with anything
> resembling a reliable source" what you meant was that we've come up
> with lots of reliable sources, but that we haven't come up with what
> you would consider multiple encyclopedic reliable sources?
>
> With that amendment, I'm apt to stop disagreeing.
>
> > What I mean is that they are not
> > encyclopedic in the sense that they don't tell us anything about why a
> > particular individual is worthy of an encyclopedia entry.
>
> Google Trends tell us that.  Lots of people are searching for
> information on Brian Peppers.
>
> > They
> > provide raw data, not information or context.  By repeatedly citing
> > the google search stats, you are (I assume) trying to justify the
> > existence of a Brian Peppers article on the grounds that he is a
> > noteworthy internet meme, so what is needed are reliable sources
> > establishing that he is in fact a noteworthy internet meme, not
> > sources that merely establish his existence as a person or a criminal
> > sex offender.
>
> No, I've never said anything about being an internet meme.  I frankly
> don't even know what the term means.
>
> > In short, a reliable source establishing why *this
> > particular* person should have an article, as opposed to all the other
> > essentially anonymous people on the sex offender list or in Ohio court
> > records.
> >
> The most reliable source for that is Google Trends.  This particular
> person should have an article because lots of people are searching for
> information about him.  If you want to call that "an internet meme",
> that's your terminology, not mine.
>
> Anthony
>
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