[WikiEN-l] WP:V, WP:RS, WP:NOR and WP:ATT

[Jimmy Wales]

First I want to thank everyone who worked on the WP:V, WP:RS, WP:NOR 
merger into WP:ATT.  I do not think those changes are a good idea, but I 
know that a lot of people worked on it in good faith, and that 
reasonable people may differ.

I undid this merger of policy not because I think it is a bad idea but 
because there was not really a proper process.  If ultimately approved, 
this is a MAJOR change of editorial policy structure (even if, at the 
outset, the policies are supposed to stay the same).

I am happy to restore the policy if there is community consensus to do. 
I am encouraging the creation of at minimum a "vote" page to allow 
people to register their opinions more systematically.

The reason, though, that I think this is a bad idea is quite simple. 
WP:RS (which has never been fully fleshed out as I think it could be) 
and WP:V and WP:NOR are separate ideas, not the same idea.  They need 
separate policy pages so they can be explained separately, even when 
there is overlap.  A combined page will tend to cause confusion as 
editors being to think that "attribution" (the word) is more important 
than verifiability, avoiding original research, etc.

Even when things like this are closely linked (and they are), they are 
actually different things.

--Jimbo