[WikiEN-l] Slashdot article

[WJhonson at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/22/2008 8:11:34 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
arromdee at rahul.net writes:

If our  policy demands that someone corrects errors about themselves by
getting the  correct information published in a secondary source first, that
policy is  broken.

It is doubly broken if the justification for this policy is  that a secondary
source would do fact-checking, when most secondary sources  in this situation
wouldn't.

Having conflict of interest rules  prevent someone from correcting errors
about himself is another broken  policy.>>
---------------------------
Firstly, our articles are not about "corrections" because they are not  about 
"errors".  Attribution isn't truth, so it can't be in error.   The only way 
for an attribution to be in error is to mis-quote it.  Making  it a meta-error. 
 The error being about the wording, not about the  underlying meaning.  We do 
not require someone to publish in a secondary  source in order to quote them. 
 We quote primary sources as well.   However the essential point should be 
raised first in a secondary source, and  then the primary source can be used to 
enlarge or clarify the secondary.
 
Secondly, we do not assume that a secondary source "would do  fact-checking". 
 Rather our policy clearly (or should clearly) state that  we *use* those 
secondary sources who *are known for* doing fact-checking.   Just because "News 
of the World" is a newspaper does not mean we consider it a  reliable source.  
So it would fail.
 
Thirdly our COI rules do not prevent a person from changing their own  
biography.  We only request that they change it in a way consistent with  the way 
other editors must work.  That is, that they become "expert  editors" of their 
own biography, using sources.
 
Finally, as others have pointed out, we have no way of knowing whether an  
editor is who-they-claim-to-be.  So they should, firstly, post their  material 
to their own *official* website and then perhaps it can be  quoted.  This has 
happened in many cases.  If they decline, then that  is not our concern, 
apparently it's not important enough for them to do the  obvious.
 
Will Johnson
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