[WikiEN-l] Unreliable sources, or no sources at all?

[David Gerard]

On 22/03/2008, bobolozo <bobolozo at yahoo.com> wrote:

>  My question is, is it a good idea to simply go through
>  and remove large numbers of these?  Are we better off
>  with no sources at all for portions of text, rather
>  than have references which consist of message board
>  postings and personal websites and such?
[...]
>  reference).  But now, having discovered the ease with
>  which I can find thousands more unreliable sources as
>  references, I'm wondering what others think of the
>  mass removal of unreliable sources.
>  Am I correct in believing that we're better off having
>  an unsourced paragraph of text, rather than a
>  paragraph which has as a reference
>  somedudeswebpage.tripod.com?


Take extreme caution and make damn sure you know the subject area
first. "Reliable sources" is entirely relative to the subject area.

Mass removal of references is the sort of thing that has gotten people
taken out and shot by the arbitration committee before.


- d.