[WikiEN-l] Another sourcing problem

[Carcharoth]

My first instinct would be to ask what state of mind the comic writers
were in when creating these characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter-Eater_Lad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_Boy

But really, if something is obscure enough that it doesn't get
published in reliable sources, you are stuck. What I would support in
such cases is an external link to a page documenting this. Kind of
like further reading.

Carcharoth

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:12 PM, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Fall_Off_Boy
>
> Summary: A joke character with a similar name existed in comics fandom.  The
> writer who put this character in the comic book mistakenly thought he was
> a preexisting character, and it's possible he confused him with the character
> who had the similar name.
>
> The Wikipedia article is allowed to mention none of this because it assumes
> that reliable sources are professionally published and we can't use fanzines
> and blogs for information...  and professionally publishing anything about
> a joke character whose superpower is that his arm falls off is not too likely.
>
>
>
> (Also, previous example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley .
> Bradley had a dispute with a fan writer over "fan fiction" (whether it even
> counts as fan fiction is highly questionable).  The fan's side of this dispute
> is available in blogs and fan sources; Bradley, being a published writer,
> could get her side described in sources that are reliable by Wikipedia
> standards.  Therefore, Wikipedia only tells one side of the story.)
>
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