[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Leadership (was NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors}

[Fred Bauder]

> "I'm sorry, but if I see somebody starting to source information from
> such tabloids you mentioned, especially information on biographies of
> living people regarding stuff that is not confirmed, there are going to
> be problems with me."-MuZemike
>
> All well in theory, but have you looked? The Daily Mail, Sun and various
> other tabloids are regularly used as sources on BLPs. The typical way of
> getting round the reliability issue will be to use phrases likes "it was
> reported in the popular press that...", on the pretext that that anything
> tabloids report is notable by virtue of being reported in popular
> newspapers
> (regardless of whether the source is reliable or not wrt the facts).
> After
> all: "surely that The Sun has said x is notable, and The Sun is a
> reliable
> source regarding what The Sun has said." :(
>
> As has been said, Wikipedia has yet to define what it means by "reliable
> source", and "notable source" is very easily substituted as a metric,
> with
> the small safeguard of attribution (sometimes).
>
> Scott

One is expected to use sound editorial judgment. Using British tabloids
for a biography of a living person falls outside that remit. One is
expected to have some familiarity with what is an appropriate source for
the subject.

Fred Bauder