[WikiEN-l] 17,268 badly referenced living biographies

[Ray Saintonge]

Thomas Dalton wrote:

>>I {{fact}}-tagged a statement which I believed to be true but for
>>which I couldn't find a citation - in a BLP, as it happens - and found
>>it reverted with the edit summary "(x) not being related to (y) does
>>not need a citation!"!!! I despair...
>>    
>>
>Put it back. I think the standard guideline is that only statements
>which nobody would question can be uncited ("the sky is blue" being
>the standard, although not very good, example) - and quite a few
>people would like citations for those anyway. The fact that you've
>added a {{fact}} tag shows that it is questioned, so does need a
>citation. {{fact}} tags should only be removed if you are removing the
>statement, adding a citation or if there is already a citation given.
>
Sometimes the citation IS already given, but not in that exact spot.  
Where an entire paragraph or group of paragraphs is taken from a 
standard source in the subject it should not be necessary to reference 
every detail of that passage, and it should be sufficient to state that 
a citation applies to the entire range.

Negative statements are trickier because hard evidence that something 
did _not_ happen usually cannot exist.  The implicit message when we say 
that something did not happen is that we have no evidence that it did.  
Perhaps that requires a convention about negative statements.  
Attributing a claim that something did not happen, or showing why it was 
impossible for it to happen would remain a stronger statement.

Ec