[Wikipedia-l] Why I don't believe (any more) in NPOV

[Andre Engels]

NPOV. Neutral Point Of View. It sounds so good. But does it work? I doubt it.
At least, I doubt whether it works in the way it is now used on Wikipedia.

Suppose I believe that the Earth is not round but cube-shaped. And I have
arguments for it. So I put these on [[Earth]]. Next someone else comes, and
says that that's bollocks. He adds all kids of arguments on why the Earth
is really a sphere, and arguments against mine. Then I put arguments against
his. And soon we spend most of the Earth page discussing arguments for and
against a cubical Earth. Is that really the way to go?

To be honest, I don't know whether I believe in NPOV. Or ever did. It sounds
very good in theory. In practice, it does not seem to work. At least not for
me. Let me state that differently - it works for some things, not for others.
I am perfectly happy to give pro and contra views when discussing political
or ethical topics. But when I talk about scientifical subjects, I go with the
mainstream scientific point of view.

Actually, my problems may lay deeper. A cubic Earth I can refute. But what if
someone claims that Siberia had a tropical climate until 4000 years ago? It
sounds like nonsense to me, but I cannot give the arguments against it. I can
probably find out what the general idea is about the climate of Siberia 4000
years ago, but on what information this is based I do not know. So should we
just let such a claim with its arguments stand, and add "however, generally
it is assumed that Siberia 4000 years ago was as cold or even somewhat colder
than now"?

What is the solution? I do not know. Maybe we should try to find more people
of established nature, not to write articles, but just to rate them. Maybe we
should be less unhappy to delete material on pages, or even start pages all
over at times. Maybe there's no problem at all, and it is me who is wrong.
Maybe there simply is no solution. I don't know. What I do know is that I find
working on Wikipedia a rather irritating thing to do lately. And irritation is
not what one expects to get from a hobby.

At WikipediaNL they have asked me why I suddenly left. There you have it.

Goodbye(?)

Andre Engels