At 12:44 AM 2008-10-15, Michael Biel wrote:
We've discussed in the past why Wikipedia is not a reliable source, but
I have just come across another reason why we in the recording field
should be outraged. They do not accept a recording or a recording of a
broadcast as a reliable source of information.
Hello, Michael,
There are long explanations on Wikipedia about why they have made this decision. In fact, it goes
against all primary sources. They do NOT want original thinking on Wikipedia, they want everything
to be verifiable from secondary sources. There are pages of discussion of this and it makes sense,
especially if you read Jim Wales's posts relating to this. One point that is made is (my
paraphrase) we can't judge the accuracy so we need to settle that we can verify points are from
presumable reliable sources. Secondary sources are journal articles, university level textbooks,
books published by major publishers. The rationale seems to be the more people checking the facts,
the better.
They make a clear distinction of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, and they see themselves
as a tertiary source relying on verifiable secondary sources.
The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research
It is an interesting concept and in reading all the material it appears internally consistent and
defensible.
Thanks, Patrick, for pointing me to that.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.