[WikiEN-l] Getting hammered in a tv interview is not fun

[Guy Chapman aka JzG]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:10:25 -0600, Bryan Derksen
<bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:

>I assume you're also one of the folks who supports removing Angela
>Beesley's birthdate from her article because although the birth register
>for her hometown's hospital listed an Angela Beesley born on the same
>date she claimed was her birthdate, there could have been _another_
>Angela Beesley born on the same day and in the same hospital as her?
>This level of synthesis is not a novel creative act, IMO.

No, that's a fact stated by the individual and corroborated from
public record, that's fine.  How many Angela Beesleys would have been
born in that hospital on that day to parents with names matching those
of her mother and father?  Not many.  

This is different.  It is a name, just a name, and a place, and no
actual detail of the link between the two (could have been a prank by
the IT people), no additional data to link the two, it's not
corroborating any other source.

>Besides, the basis of this particular subthread is that the source
>didn't actually support the statement, so whether it's original research
>is moot. We don't need more stringent policies on sources to deal with
>it, just people who actually click the links and _check_ them.

That's even more of a problem of course :o)

But if we found a Jaffar Amin in a directory somewhere, would we
immediately assume, without checking, that it is Idi's son?  OK, a
pretty singular name to Western eyes, but is it that uncommon?

And there's another thing: did Amin have 40 children, or was it 22?
Google is inconclusive.

Guy (JzG)
-- 
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG