[WikiEN-l] Otto Middleton (a morality tale)

[Andreas Kolbe]

--- On Tue, 10/5/11, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Otto Middleton (a morality tale)
> To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Date: Tuesday, 10 May, 2011, 17:11
> On 10 May 2011 17:04, Scott MacDonald
> <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > I've written a little essay which I think serves to
> illustrate the dangers
> > of Wikipedia's tendency to create articles (and
> particularly BLPs) from a
> > pastiche of newspaper articles.
> > See
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Otto_Middleton_%28or_why_newspapers_a
> > re_dubious_sources%29
> > It may amuse (or it may not)
> 
> 
> Yep. Anyone who calls a newspaper a "reliable source" in
> terms other
> than comparison to even worse sources has clearly never
> been written
> about by one.
> 
> Suggestion: move the explanatory box to the top.


A while ago there was a discussion at WP:V talk whether we should 
recast the policy's opening sentence:

"The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—
whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been 
published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true."

(As usual, the discussion came to nought.) That sentence -- whose 
provocative formulation has served Wikipedia well in keeping out original 
research -- is a big part of the problem.

A.