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

[Andrew Gray]

On 11/05/07, Matthew Brown <morven at gmail.com> wrote:

> IIRC this was because there were sources saying David Gaiman the
> notable scientologist had a son called Neil, and lived in town X; and
> sources saying Neil Gaiman the author's father was named David and
> they also lived in town X - but no source saying 'David Gaiman the
> scientologist' and 'Neil Gaiman the author' were related.

There was a truly inspired debate on one talkpage (I just went to read
it) which ran something like this:

A: I've heard some newspaper explicitly quoted the connection in an
interview with David in 2005 (...)
A: I've gone to the British Library and read the newspaper in
question. Here is a bit. [quotes]
B: I've seen that passage quoted on many Internet sites. I want to see
it reprinted by a reliable source. We need to show that we're using
the source itself, not some transcription on the internet.
A: Er, this is quoting from the original. Which I have read. In the
British Library.
B: Oh, er.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk