Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard

Welcome — ask about reliability of sources in context!

Before posting, check the archives and list of perennial sources for prior discussions. Context is important: supply the source, the article it is used in, and the claim it supports. Additional notes: RFCs for deprecation, blacklisting, or other classification should not be opened unless the source is widely used and has been repeatedly discussed. Consensus is assessed based on the weight of policy-based arguments. While the consensus of several editors can generally be relied upon, answers are not policy. This page is not a forum for general discussions unrelated to the reliability of sources. Start a new discussion

RFC: Moratorium on "general reliability" RFCs

• Should we agree to halt the use of RFCs containing four options for "general (un)reliability" of a source, particularly when said RFC contains no specific instances of claims or citations?
• While it may be useful to deprecate heavily-used and clearly-unreliable sources, the corollary is not true: Wikipedia is unable to promote a source to "reliable for any assertion about any topic whatsoever"; reliability is always assessed based on the nature of the claims being made.
• With these parameters in mind, is it futile for us to continually open RFCs here on WP:RSN if an outcome of "generally reliable for everything" is counter-productive and misleading?
  • Sub-question: should such RFCs be permitted as long as they include at least one concrete example of an assertion of fact, such as one which is currently in dispute on an article's talk page?

Elizium23 (talk) 00:53, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Survey (moratorium)

Arguments on both sides varied subtly, but to me it's clear that there is no consensus to halt RfCs at this time. Prominent support votes included concerns that A) RFCs on reliability assessments of particular sources have been mass-produced without prior informal discussions occurring beforehand as advised in WP:RFCBEFORE, and B) that "deprecation" is used too excessively. While both arguments are valid to certain extents, in the end the oppose votes are more well-formulated. The vast majority of voters opposing such a measure (Newslinger being the most prominent) present arguments that all basically boil down to WP:CONTEXTMATTERS, as well as concerns that such a measure would, at best, undermine the very purpose of RfCs. Nonetheless, given that even a relative majority in the opposition sympathized with the support on the two aforementioned key supportive arguments, overall I'd say that there while there is a somewhat strong consensus for discouraging RfCs for any source whose reliability has not been previously discussed on RSN or elsewhere as per WP:RFCBEFORE as well as considerable consensus for exercising caution when nominating a source for deprecation (applying common sense where necessary), there is absolutely no reasonable consensus to implement a moratorium at this time. ToThAc (talk) 22:49, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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• @Elizium23: Could you provide a couple of examples of the types of RfCs you think should be halted? 01:09, 14 July 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nikkimaria (talk • contribs)

  Sure: WP:RSN#RfC: Quadrant Magazine, WP:RSN#RfC: Daily Graphic and wgraphic.com.gh, WP:RSN#RfC: The Herald (Glasgow). I didn't even have to visit our archives for them. I am not sure where this template originated, but it has rapidly become the de facto method for opening discussions here on RSN, and I do not like it, no sir, not one bit. Elizium23 (talk) 01:13, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

•  Comment: This RfC is related to the RfC at WT:RSN § RfC: Header text, which affects the header text of this noticeboard. — Newslinger talk 01:19, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose halting RfCs. By generally reliable, we're referring to sources that have a strong reputation for accuracy, fact-checking, and error-correction. They usually have a reputable editorial team, and tend to be endorsed or used by other reliable sources for factual information. Context always matters, and the consensus shown in some discussions on this noticeboard restrict the scope of what a source is generally reliable for (e.g. The Verge RfC).

  Note that the word generally means "usually" in this context, not "always". The general classification of a source is only the starting point for evaluating reliability, and specific uses of a source can always be brought to this noticeboard for a more targeted review. If a source frequently publishes articles outside of its circle of competence, like in your example about science and religion, then the source should not be considered generally reliable. — Newslinger talk 01:21, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

  Then perhaps the question we should be asking is: Is there evidence that [source] have a reputation for fact-checking and editorial oversight? If a source meets these criteria, and independence from the topic, etc., then per WP:NEWSORG we may deem it to be generally reliable for statements of fact. But I do not think it is useful to whip up boiler-plate RFCs directly asking whether [source] is 'generally reliable' (and it's interesting that the qualification for statements of fact is, here on RSN, often missing from this question. Elizium23 (talk) 01:31, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

  For what it's worth, The 3 RfCs you have linked (Quadrant, Daily Graphic, The Herald) do include the "for factual reporting" qualifier after "Generally reliable". If this is not descriptive enough, then I agree that it would be helpful to provide more detailed definitions of each option in RfCs of this type. — Newslinger talk 01:45, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

  For what it's worth? Zilch. Newslinger opposed directly quoting or pointing to the RfCs, successfully. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 23:07, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

  Your reference and link to a discussion on edit filters have nothing to do with generally reliable sources. — Newslinger talk 03:44, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

  @Newslinger: If "generally reliable" is supposed to mean "usually" it should be worded differently, because "generally" sounds like it means in the broadest sense. "In general" is not equivalent to saying "in the cases where this source is applicable as a potential RS". If Scientific American is "generally reliable" then it would be reliable for politics too. —DIYeditor (talk) 23:22, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

  ​Thanks for bringing this up. I've started a discussion at WT:RSP § "Generally" in search of a less ambiguous word than generally. — Newslinger talk 23:56, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

  As a result of the above discussion, "Generally reliable" has been changed to "Generally reliable in its areas of expertise" in WP:RSP § Legend. — Newslinger talk 14:49, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

  I am neutral on the restriction ("include at least one concrete example of an assertion of fact") suggested in the sub-question. While we should encourage editors to provide examples of how a source is being used, a question on the general reliability of a source shouldn't be unduly focused on one specific use of that source. — Newslinger talk 01:45, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose halting RfCs. What's wrong with seeking a consensus as to the reliability of a source? I thought we were aiming to have high quality reliable sources? If an outlet is unreliable, it is unreliable WP:SPADE. I personally think it's a very useful means to ensure quality citations and avoid myriad edit wars and content disputes before they happen. Bacondrum (talk) 07:03, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Comment Isn't the whole purpose of this noticeboard to ask questions regarding reliable sources? Bacondrum (talk) 07:13, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Comment Shouldn't this discussion be held somewhere else? This is the reliable source noticeboard, isn't it? Perhaps the talk page would be more appropriate? Bacondrum (talk) 08:16, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose halting RfCs. It's appropriate to have one big discussion about a source's reputation for accuracy, fact-checking, and error-correction since this doesn't usually change from article to article. This doesn't prevent us from discussing its appropriateness in a specific instance where things like attributed quotes or scientific/medical claims come into play. –dlthewave ☎ 12:00, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose, though there are a tad too many of these lately. Generally a RfC here on the general use should be preceded by a discussion on a particular use (here), and also demonstrating that we have a general problem (e.g. We use source X in 100 articles, despite source X being described as Y....). Lately - there have been some RfCs here that jumped the gun on proper pre-RfC discussions. However, we definitely shouldn't have a moratorium on RfCs of these type generally - as discussions sources is exactly what this board is for. Icewhiz (talk) 13:15, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Be more careful Don't reach straight for the RfC unless other options have proved fruitless. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 14:45, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. RfCs should only be used in order to cleanly remove/"deprecate" currently in-use sources. For sources where no formal action is envisaged, start with a standard discussion. feminist (talk) 14:55, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support as there ahave been far too many in a short period so that the discussion is often truncated, undetailed, lacking participation and depth of investigation, regards Atlantic306 (talk) 16:53, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. The four-way question is deceptive and not consistent with WP:RS. It misleads by claiming to be a "deprecation" so people who know this dictionary definition will think it's about "disapproval" but in fact the intent (not necessarily implemented) is that an edit filter will result in a message that references are generally prohibited. It misleads by claiming to be "as in the 2017 RfC of the Daily Mail" but in fact the Daily Mail closers didn't say "deprecating", said the prohibition is of use as a reference, and said opinion pieces are okay. It misleads by causing links to essay-status pages as if they have some sort of authority, when the real authority is WP:RS policy (the one that says to always take context into account). The Herald (Glasgow) RfC is an example of misuse -- an editor included the question about treating like The Daily Mail, not with evidence that serious people might think that but it's in the four-way question. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 20:31, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Excuse me, sir, but "misuse"? I felt The Herald belongs on WP:RSP. What is the process if not posting here and getting consensus? It was my first time at this noticeboard. I saw the "four option" query being used here as if it was a template or standard format, so I followed suit. Other contributors even thanked me for the submission or said they thought The Herald was already on the list of perennial sources. And since this is policy currently being voted on, I don't think I was wrong, so I thank you not to characterize my submission as misuse or abuse of the noticeboard. --SVTCobra 20:46, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

SVTCobra Indeed, all this talk of misuse and dishonesty is way out of line, what happened to the assumption of good faith? I too saw that NEWSLINGER had used that format and I thought it was a clear and efficiant way to get feedback, I never asked for anything to be depreciated. Isn't this notice board precisely for asking about the reliability of sources? I've seen very little reasoning used here, just claims that too many people are asking questions or that those who ask are being dishonest. Should probably get rid of this noticeboard then, why have it if you aren't allowed to ask too much or your going to be accused of dishonesty. Bacondrum (talk) 22:09, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Neither of the Daily Mail (RSP entry) RfCs (2017 nor 2019) concluded that "opinion pieces are okay". See Wikipedia:Citing sources for what reference means.

Even deprecated sources qualify for the WP:ABOUTSELF exception, which allows their use for uncontroversial self-descriptions in the rare case that they are WP:DUE and covered by reliable sources. The reliable sources guideline is being honored in all of these RfCs, because context matters in each of the four options. (The only exception is the CoinDesk RfC, and I opposed the proposal in that RfC's statement because this criterion was not met.) WP:DEPS defers to WP:RS and explicitly states, "reliability always depends on the specific content being cited, and all sources are reliable in at least some circumstances and unreliable in at least some others". If there is any confusion about what deprecation means, a link to WP:DEPS will clarify.

When an editor asks about a low-quality source, we should be able to say that it is questionable, and that it generally shouldn't be used on Wikipedia. Repeatedly debating the inclusion of poor sources that have earned abysmal reputations for repeatedly publishing false or fabricated information, conspiracy theories, or pseudoscience is a waste of the community's time. RfCs of this type allow us to make decisive evaluations resulting in consensus that endures until there is evidence that the source's reputation has changed. Consensus is a policy. — Newslinger talk 21:49, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

I said "misuse" correctly but should have emphasized it was innocent misuse, which is obvious. I said "and [Daily Mail RfC closers] said opinion pieces are okay" because despite Newslinger's irrelevancies it is a fact, see the NPOVN archive of a May 2017 discussion and look for the words "Attributed opinions of the author were not considered in the RFC, and a reasonable exception from the ban appears correct here." Nobody said anything against "we should be able to say that it is questionable" because that's not the topic. Consensus is not a policy that allows overriding WP:RS because WP:CONLEVEL. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 23:07, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

At Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard/Archive 65 § Daily Mail, the full statement from Tazerdadog (one of the 2017 Daily Mail RfC closers) was:

Attributed opinions of people other than the author were considered in the RFC and were included in the ban (IAR notwithstanding). Attributed opinions of the author were not considered in the RFC, and a reasonable exception from the ban appears correct here.)

The attributed opinions of any article's author are covered under WP:ABOUTSELF, which applies to all questionable (and deprecated) sources, although due weight should also be considered. If you don't like the results of the two Daily Mail RfCs, you can try to convince the community that "its use as a reference" should not be "generally prohibited". Overturning the current consensus would require a third RfC on the Daily Mail, which is not advisable right now because it's highly unlikely to succeed.

Nobody is suggesting that WP:RS should be overridden; the type of RfC being discussed here uses WP:V and WP:RS to identify questionable sources for what they are: "generally unreliable". — Newslinger talk 08:42, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

WP:ABOUTSELF is "about self", an honest title that has nothing whatever to do with Newslinger's assertion. But that doesn't matter since now there's no dispute that the closers said attributed opinions are okay, which is one of the reasons the question is misleading. I said nothing in this thread about overturning WP:DAILYMAIL, perhaps Newslinger mixes that up with my remarks that one shouldn't say something is like The Daily Mail and its RfC when it's not. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 14:27, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Please re-read WP:ABOUTSELF. Using the example from the NPOVN discussion, the article that Katie Hopkins published in the Daily Mail qualifies under WP:ABOUTSELF as an uncontroversial representation of what Hopkins's own opinions are. However, this is only due in the article on Katie Hopkins (and if it were more prominent, it would be due in the Daily Mail article). It is not due anywhere else. Claiming that "the closers said attributed opinions are okay" is extremely misleading, since it conflates WP:RSOPINION (which the Daily Mail does not qualify for, because it's not considered a reliable source) with WP:ABOUTSELF (which is a restrictive exemption granted to all questionable sources and self-published sources). — Newslinger talk 20:25, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

The closer remarks that I pointed to made no mention of WP:ABOUTSELF, Newslinger while claiming to quote "the full statement from Tazerdadog" quoted only one full statement, another was "However, the DM does not have a reputation for altering the words of the author of the piece, so this can be taken as one of the exceptions we tried to write into the close.", the point at issue wasn't secretly WP:ABOUTSELF unless one believes that when Katie Hopkins wrote "Britain is faced with some hard questions ..." the word Britain was a synonym for Katie Hopkins. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 22:28, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

That is covered under WP:ABOUTSELF, because the claim is that Hopkins wrote the statement in the Daily Mail, not that the statement is true. It is used in the Katie Hopkins article as a primary source equivalent, but is not due anywhere else. Since WP:ABOUTSELF covers this situation entirely, no additional exceptions were made for the Daily Mail beyond what is normally allotted for questionable sources. The 2017 Daily Mail RfC does not support the use of the Daily Mail for all "opinion pieces", but the ones eligible for WP:ABOUTSELF "were not considered in the RFC". — Newslinger talk 00:33, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

I asked a closer, Primefac. The reply is here. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 19:45, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying with Primefac. The Katie Hopkins case was not the ideal example, since it falls under WP:ABOUTSELF in the Katie Hopkins article. I will defer to Primefac's explanation for attributed opinions of Daily Mail authors in articles other than the article of the author, although due weight still applies. — Newslinger talk 21:18, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

If the term deprecation is an issue, anyone can submit a requested move from Wikipedia:Deprecated sources to Wikipedia:Highly questionable sources or some other name. The name makes no difference to me. However, I get the impression that you're not objecting to the name, but to the adoption of edit filters and other mechanisms that discourage the use of highly questionable sources. There is consensus that RfCs are the preferred process for determining whether these mechanisms should be implemented. You can verify this through the 18 successful RfCs that deprecated 17 different sources, and you can also read this paragraph from the closing statement of the 2019 Daily Mail RfC:

Finally, a number of editors argued that other publications were similarly, or more, unreliable than the Daily Mail. We note that the unreliability of a different source is a reason to remove that source, and is irrelevant here; regardless, these other publications are outside the scope of this RfC, and if there are lingering concerns about other tabloids or tabloids in general, a separate RfC is necessary to assess current consensus about them.

— Newslinger talk 08:14, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

There was absolutely zero "lingering concern" that something like The Herald (Glasgow) is a tabloid meriting removal, but there is concern here about the misuse of a misleading 4-way question that was never suggested in WP:DAILYMAIL closing remarks. As for "identifying questionable sources" -- great idea, because it's normal behaviour following instructions at the top of this WP:RSN page, i.e. it's not an RfC with four fixed questions. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 14:27, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

As of right now, nobody in the RfC for The Herald has claimed that it is a "tabloid meriting removal". WP:RFC lists a number of accepted uses for an RfC: "Requests for comment (RfC) is a process for requesting outside input concerning disputes, policies, guidelines or article content." The type of RfC under debate solicits input on whether a source generally meets the requirements of WP:V (a policy) and WP:RS (a guideline). Outside of the instructions in WP:RFCST, declaring whether an RfC format is or isn't "normal behaviour" for other editors is excessively bureaucratic, and Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy. — Newslinger talk 20:43, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

You brought up "lingering concerns about tabloids", I observed there was no lingering concern, so the excuse that you brought up doesn't hold. You brought up how good identifying questionable sources was, I said that's normal and in keeping with WP:RSN, I don't think I need to excuse that. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 22:28, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

These 18 RfCs, some of which you participated in, show ample "lingering concerns" regarding a wide variety of sources, including tabloids. One of the goals of these RfCs are to identify low-quality sources like InfoWars (RfC), Breitbart News (RfC) (which you defended), and Occupy Democrats (RfC) as sources that should be discouraged from use. — Newslinger talk 00:27, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

I assume the closer of this RfC will be capable of noticing that Newslinger changed the subject instead of addressing the point. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 19:45, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

You're ignoring the 18 RfCs that showed consensus for deprecating the source (including two tabloids, The Sun (RfC) and the National Enquirer (RfC)) and cherry-picking one RfC that doesn't. I've addressed your point. — Newslinger talk 21:18, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

• Strong oppose as per dlthewave. François Robere (talk) 20:37, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose - David Gerard (talk) 21:06, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose also per Dlthewave. Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 21:16, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Comment - those kind of RfCs are appropriate for sketchy sources which are widely used. Like Daily Mail or Fox News kind of stuff. They are not appropriate for more narrow topics or sources.Volunteer Marek (talk) 21:45, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose per Newslinger and others, with the added notes that 1) this should probably take place on the talk page for this board and 2) there's already a discussion under way there on an overlapping topic. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 22:01, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
• Let's have a moratorium on RfCs about RfCs. Softlavender (talk) 03:52, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Hahaha! My thoughts exactly, thanks for the chuckle.

• Oppose but I agree with Icewhiz about the need to first establish that a source has specific reliability issues before going for a general RfC. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 08:24, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose per my comment above: These RFCs are useful to get a very rough barometer for how a source is seen by the community and how specific questions about it are likely to be evaluated. Unless an RFC is worded as an outright ban (which is very rare, and generally invoked as a last resort), I don't think any outcome is taken to mean "always reliable, can never be questioned" or "always unreliable, remove on sight"; rather, they provide editors with a quick reference point so they know where they're starting from and the mood of the room if they want to argue for or against using a particular source in a particular context. Additionally, while it's accurate to say that we should judge each case individually, the reality is that we can't reliably get enough people to weigh in on each of them to ensure consistent assessment of sources; going entirely case-by-case with no broader RFCs would result in inconsistent and sometimes random responses based on who happened to weigh in. In particular, one of the requirements of WP:RS is that a source have a "reputation for fact-checking and accuracy", often the most difficult thing to assess - and one that usually doesn't vary much from use to use (or, if it does, it does so in a consistent expected way that can be noted during the RFC.) These RFCs can't predict or account for all possible uses of a source, but they're absolutely useful in terms of giving us a consistent, reasonably well-grounded definition of "does this source, on the whole, have the baseline reputation for fact-checking and accuracy that WP:RS requires?" --Aquillion (talk) 08:32, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

The problem is that a source may have a “baseline reputation for fact checking and accuracy” in one area, and not have one in another area. This was pointed out in the several Daily Mail RFCs... the DM is accurate when reporting on sports... not when reporting on politics and celebrities. This is why I am not a fan of these RFCs. They don’t examine context. Blueboar (talk) 11:07, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

So, several things. First, and most importantly, the Daily Mail RFC was one of those "last resort" things I mentioned - it's different from most of the RFCs we use here. Because a few people kept trying to use the Daily Mail as if it were a top-tier New York Times-quality source despite a very clear informal consensus that it was generally not reliable (and even though it kept coming back to WP:RSN and getting basically laughed off the page), we took the unusual step of formalizing that consensus into a general banned-by-default RFC. Those are and should be extremely rare, reserved only for when people keep insisting on trying to use a source in clearly unworkable ways over and over (ie. when a source both rarely passes WP:RS and is extremely popular for controversial topics where it clearly fails WP:RS.) It wasn't a gauge-the-general-room-temperature-for-the-Daily-Mail RFC, it was a we're-at-wits-end-and-need-this-to-stop RFC. Those are a separate thing, but I think they're justifiable occasionally; even in sports, I don't feel there much we would want in Wikipedia uniquely sourceable to the Daily Mail that can't be found elsewhere. But for the more common sorts of "what does the community think of X?" RFCs, things like this can be noted in the RFC, if it's true. We're not limited to binary yes / no options - the purpose of those RFCs is to collect a general measure of the community's consensus on a source in one place; if you look at the RFCs above, they're generally cautiously worded and lead to fairly cautiously worded entries in WP:RSP to provide guidance to editors, not strict bans or the like. Also, you are more likely to have someone contribute who knows those details in a large month-long RFC with a lot of people contributing than to have it come up in a tiny brief discussion with only a few people - what makes you think that if you come here saying "I want to use the Daily Mail as a source for Joe Sportsman", you'll get anything but "hahaha the Daily Mail? No." from the vast majority of responses? In this sense the RFCs are useful because they're more likely to turn up someone who says "wait, source X is actually usable in situation Y!", which (if they convince people in the RFC) can then be noted down on WP:RSP as something that came up and will then be available to editors who wouldn't otherwise have known it (and may not have discovered it, if they just poked WP:RSN and got a response from a handful of random people for their exact issue, which seems to be what the support voters here want us to go back to.) --Aquillion (talk) 16:59, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose It is what is says on the box: an RfC about general reliability. ANY website is reliable for the material it says about itself, but we try not to use / should be very careful with the use of those (primary) sources in the first place. It is a good thing that we establish as a community that a certain source is generally reliable, sometimes/often reliable or generally unreliable. The ones that the community decides that they are generally unreliable should be removed for non-primary sources, and the use as primary source should be scrutinized and may need removal. The use of such unreliable sources should be strongly discouraged and sometimes plainly be made 'impossible' (i.e. only be possible after a consensus discussion). --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 12:18, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Alternate proposal - define and restrict General Reliability RFCs to cases where they actually make sense:
  • A General Reliability RFC is useful for adding a source to the list of perennial sources.
  • A General Reliability RFC is only appropriate if there have been at least 3 previous RSN discussions on the same source, each linked in the General RFC. This establishes that there is a genuine purpose for a generalized discussion, and it ensures at least previous three disputed cases for examination as well as that previous ground work of research and analysis. A general RFC on a source no one ever heard of, which no one will ever bring up again, and with no substantial evidentiary basis, is a bad use of other people's time.
  • The instructions and documentation should prominently state that that the outcome of a General Reliability RFC does not resolve any open dispute about any particular usage at any particular article. RSN already lays out separate instructions and requirements for that. Alsee (talk) 13:43, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• At least in as much as it applies, I have long said that we should not be having RfCs or even dedicated threads purely for the purpose of listing a source (one way or the other) on WP:RSPS. See also Goodhart's law. GMG^talk 14:09, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support strongly. If someone cares about looking into a sources reliability and answering questions about it they can go here. RfCs for sources which have not been brought here before just bludgeon the process and waste everybody involved's times. Sources should only be brought to RfC if there was no consensus or the consensus was not wide enough. Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 16:55, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support While some publications are more reliable than others, it's not as if some sources are gospel truth while others are heretical. Above, we are spending time on the American Conservative which publishes conservative opinion. Policy is however clear. Opinion pieces are rarely reliable unless written by experts. What point is there in having an argument about what people think about these opinions? TFD (talk) 17:10, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support The whole idea of a broad brush for a source is badly flawed. First every source varies in reliability. Second, reliability varies with respect to the text which supports it. Britney Spear's sister's book might be reliable as a cite for a "Britney's favorite color is.." statement, but not for a statement on particle physics. North8000 (talk) 17:35, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support Honestly all the RFCs without having discussion first is disruptive and not very helpful in general. A RFC should be a last resort and not a first try. It also ignores the general ideas of what we consider a RS. PackMecEng (talk) 22:12, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support per PackMecEng. The number of frivolous RfCs on this noticeboard discourages widespread participation, which undermines the possibility of them being authoritative answers, and encourages users to start an RfC every time they have a question about a source, or a gripe with one. Further, the wording of "generally reliable" which I take to mean "in general" conflicts with the primary meanings of "general" and may be misleading. Only an encyclopedia, which is a tertiary source anyway, would be "generally reliable". The RfCs are stamping a "general" seal of approval on sources that may have only narrow applicability. —DIYeditor (talk) 23:43, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support - These "Is X a terrible source which should be banned from Wiki" RFCs have been like a rash on this page since the DM ban, which was the original instance of banning something just because the power existed to do it. There is no reason to classify every single potential source here, and by doing so we store up potential problems for the future (bad decisions made without any context, which when applied to an actual case are clearly wrong in the context of that case). Just apply WP:NEWSORG. FOARP (talk) 09:08, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

PS - I also think a good argument can be made that these general discussions of source-reliability are against WP:FORUM. Unless there is a concrete issue related to article content being discussed, then ultimately these are just forum-type discussions about media in general. FOARP (talk) 09:31, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

These discussions don't violate WP:NOTFORUM, since they affect article content. They also affect how editor conduct is evaluated in areas subject to discretionary sanctions. — Newslinger talk 01:58, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Only in the sense that a contextless discussion on what countries, politicians, or political parties are "bad" might do - and I'd hope that we would be able to identify that as as a WP:FORUM discussion. FOARP (talk) 07:29, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

The context is all of the articles the source is cited in, which can be found through an insource query or Special:LinkSearch. And this entire noticeboard focuses on evaluating whether sources have adequate reputations for fact-checking and accuracy. We're not determining whether various entities are "bad", but whether sources meet Wikipedia's standards. If these discussions were just forum discussions that didn't impact article content, there would be no incentive for you to post "Bad RfC" in all of the other RfCs on this page. — Newslinger talk 08:12, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Yes, folks, stating that something is a Bad RFC means it must be a good RFC. My incentive cannot possibly be to point out that they are bad RFCs - I must be doing it because they are good ones!

Similarly, discursive, context-free discussions about sources that frequently reference the imagined political bias of the source and rarely cite meaningful evidence of general unreliability are not actually a determination of the source being "bad" in any sense - other than having the potential effect that they cannot be used. FOARP (talk) 12:39, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose - Some sources are plainly unreliable for any factual information, and we shouldn't have to make a request for each and every article in which they are used. --PluniaZ (talk) 04:37, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose if prior discussion - I don't see why a full-blown RfC is needed if there hasn't been a prior general RSN discussion on it. However, if there has, why not seek out consensus? Nosebagbear (talk) 10:12, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose halting RfCs: such discussions and WP:RSP heuristics (which marks many sources as "Generally reliable in its areas of expertise") are exceptionally helpful to newer users and those less experienced in determining if a source is reliable. Saying "reliability is always assessed based on the nature of the claims being made" tells a new user nothing. It's a rule for experienced users to bear in mind in edge cases, but not helpful to someone who wants to know whether they should go to The Register (yes) or Forbes (yes unless it's /sites/) or Breitbart (no) when they need a reliable source for something. — Bilorv (he/him) _(talk) 17:37, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

/sites/ is now used for staff articles too not just contributors. example. --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 21:09, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

Ooh, good to know. — Bilorv (he/him) _(talk) 12:58, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support as a general concept. Actually, I wonder whether we should stop declaring sources to be generally unreliable, and instead start pointing out the specific ways in which certain common sources fail the guideline. The Daily Mail, for example, is generally unreliable because it's reputation for fact-checking and accuracy is poor, not because we don't like it. Declaring sources to be generally unreliable (beyond saying things like "DM doesn't meet the WP:RS guideline's definition of a reliable source – specifically, it fails point #1 in WP:NOTGOODSOURCE") overlooks the importance of WP:RSCONTEXT and usually is more of a question about WP:DUE weight anyway. (Yes, that website/fringe news site/politician actually did say that [which means the source is "reliable" under the WP:RS definition for narrow statements like "This source said that"]. But so what? There's no need to put any of that in this article in the first place.) In several cases, I think that these "GUNREL" declarations have actually been "tiny minority" declarations, and muddling the two concepts is a bad idea for anyone who wants to be able to think clearly and logically about content policies.
  Specifically, while I think we should stop having these RFCs, I am willing to perhaps consider the occasional RFC in contentious cases that have repeatedly appeared here at RSN and where RSN has had difficulty in resolving those discussions. (RSN regulars are perfectly capable of repeating "No, you can't use that anonymous HIV denial website to support a claim that HIV doesn't exist" as many times as necessary, without anyone starting an RFC.) As a practical matter, I also think we should stop having these "banned sources" RFCs on this page (use a subpage if you need to). Any of the alternatives that sound approximately like "Stop the RFCs unless you genuinely can't get resolve your content dispute any other way" would work for me. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:37, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose this proposal as too rigid, but favor some minimal threshold. I would favor, as a general rule, that an editor starting a "general reliability" RfC would need to provide diffs showing (1) that the source was cited at least 5-10 times in article space (either presently, or in the recent past) and that there has been some of sort actual dispute about the reliability of the source. (I would not, as some suggest, require 3 different noticeboard discussions or anything like that—but I would require some sort of actual evidence, via reversion, talk page discussion, or noticeboard discussion, that the reliability of a source has actually been disputed.). Neutrality^talk 01:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support – sources should be evaluated in connection with a specific claim in a specific article, and not generally. – Levivich 01:59, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose. There is obvious utility in maintaining the list of generally unreliable sources. Obviously some people do not like the fact that some sources are generally unreliable. That is largely the point. Case by case review of Breitbart would be a titanic waste of time, and we'd need a {{still no}} template as well. Equally, a source that is a legitimate review case by case, is probably not right for deprecation. There should not be many deprecated sources but there absolutely should be deprecated sources, and managing this through RFC is the only obviously practical way of doing it. Not every new user can be expected to be familiar with our arcana, so the edit filters minimise bite, and again, we have to have some way of managing that. You could make a case for triaging, and putting those which meet the threshold for a proper debate at WP:CENT, but we have to have the RFCs. Guy (Help!) 10:29, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose- Although I can see the arguments for dialing back the RfCs a little, I worry that forbidding all discussion is just going to make every mendacious propaganda site decreed reliable by default while preventing anyone from doing anything about it. Reyk _YO! 10:35, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose the main question. I do agree that they're mainly for unreliable sources, though, rather than setting rules for what is reliable [in general]. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 02:27, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose Autarch (talk) 18:59, 3 August 2019

(UTC)

• Just a quick count of votes to date: 19 OPPOSE and 11 SUPPORT Bacondrum (talk) 02:17, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose moratorium, while supporting the inclusion of several specific examples whenever raising a general question about a particular source. — JFG ^talk 19:54, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
• Support the opinions of North8000 and FOARP appear to be persuasive. The use of a source should be on a case by case basis, per article. Looking back on some of these RfCs a case of IDONTLIKEIT appear to have created consensus to ensure that sources are no longer utilized, which leads to due to the reduction of available resources, some content taking on the weight of views of the remaining sources, while excluding the views of other sources thus leading to, well meaning but, non-neutral content. Thus as others have suggested CONTEXTMATTERS.--RightCowLeftCoast (Moo) 11:04, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose. Per the many reasons already noted. Having a more structured discussion seems useful. I’ve been in a few roundabouts where the core issues are ignored and productive movement is derailed , on purpose or not, to the detriment of getting consensus.
  I also find it very useful to know if given a choice of multiple sources to use, which ones are more reliable. Presumably we should be getting sources that will last and not be just good enough for the moment. Gleeanon409 (talk) 22:45, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
• Support ^{Second thoughts 10:08, 2 September 2019 (UTC)} - sources are used for verifiability so it depends on what needs to be verified - see WP:V To discuss the reliability of a specific source for a particular statement, consult the reliable sources noticeboard, which seeks to apply this policy to particular cases. It is a core content policy to which we should adhere. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 02:36, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

As this RfC has run for 30 days, I've submitted a request for closure at WP:RFCL § Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#RFC: Moratorium on "general reliability" RFCs. — Newslinger talk 17:58, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose but deprecation should be used with care, and it should be emphasized that even deprecation is not an absolute blacklist. --MarioGom (talk) 11:31, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Workshop

Some editors have suggested restrictions on when an RfC on the general reliability of a source would be appropriate, as well as changes to the commonly used 4-option RfC format. For more coordinated discussion, please list your suggestion in a new subheading under this "Workshop" section, so other editors can comment on them individually. ​​​​​​​​— Newslinger talk 21:01, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Emir of Wikipedia's proposal

I still oppose option 4 of the "commonly used" format. In my view an RfC on reliability is only appropriate if there has not been a discussion here which generated clear consensus, or if there has been discussion scattered around Wikipedia which needs centralising in an easily referable place. --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 21:07, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Alsee's proposal

Alternate proposal - define and restrict General Reliability RFCs to cases where they actually make sense:

• A General Reliability RFC is useful for adding a source to the list of perennial sources.
• A General Reliability RFC is only appropriate if there have been at least 3 previous RSN discussions on the same source, each linked in the General RFC. This establishes that there is a genuine purpose for a generalized discussion, and it ensures at least previous three disputed cases for examination as well as that previous ground work of research and analysis. A general RFC on a source no one ever heard of, which no one will ever bring up again, and with no substantial evidentiary basis, is a bad use of other people's time.
• The instructions and documentation should prominently state that that the outcome of a General Reliability RFC does not resolve any open dispute about any particular usage at any particular article. RSN already lays out separate instructions and requirements for that.

Alsee (talk) 13:43, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support some combination of this with GMG's proposal below being added to instructions at top of this noticeboard. —DIYeditor (talk) 00:06, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. Alsee's proposal ensures that general reliability RfCs are decided on at least four rounds of examination (three previous discussions plus the RfC itself), and directs attention to sources that need the most input from editors. It delineates the difference between the general case and specific cases, and does not place undue weight on any single use of a source. RfCs are most useful for reducing the volume of discussions on sources that are discussed too often. This proposal is likely to make the greatest reduction on editor workload by ensuring that there are not too many RfCs nor too many discussions on this noticeboard. (A requirement of 4–5 discussions instead of 3 also sounds reasonable to me.) — Newslinger talk 00:59, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose, too WP:CREEP-y. An essay to this effect might make sense, but these discussions are useful to gauge the general temperature of the community's views on a particular source, which helps people decide whether to open specific discussions and how to word them if they do (eg. letting people know the starting point and whether they need to argue a particular usage is an exception to the general community opinion on a source in one way or another.) More specific RSN discussions are useful but not sufficient for our purposes on their own, since they usually have very little participation and can therefore produce extremely swingy results between similar sources based on who happens to weigh in. --Aquillion (talk) 18:58, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
  • Fair enough, maybe best left for an essay (or some mildly worded friendly advice at the top of this page). I think that formal RfCs exacerbate the problem of these swingy results because if there are 10 active RfCs on here all the time, people watching for RfCs may just start to ignore them. So while it being an RfC may give the impression of being authoritative or representing general consensus, the flood of them may make that not true. Or is that off base? —DIYeditor (talk) 19:20, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. François Robere (talk) 18:04, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support if original proposal not passed - This is a good alternative since it would still address the problem of people simply treating this page as a forum for discussing which sources are, in their view, "bad" in some contextless sense. FOARP (talk) 07:24, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Supt.-2nd Choice if "GreenMeansGo's proposal" below does not pass, see my reasoning there. Alanscottwalker (talk) 14:45, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose - The list of perennial sources should have its own inclusion criteria based on past RfCs. Assuming that were based on multiple past discussions, it's unclear what this proposal would allow for in the case of general reliability RfCs. I generally support the idea that we shouldn't jump to one of those RfCs without previous discussions of a source, but I'm reluctant to suggest codifying that rule or, as I've already implied, the necessary involvement of RSP, which should remain a meta resource rather than play a role in the consensus process. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 02:32, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

GreenMeansGo's proposal

You shouldn't open threads about a source unless there is a specific content dispute. You shouldn't open a thread about the universal reliability of a source unless there is a preponderance of threads dealing with specific content disputes where they have decided the source is unreliable. GMG^talk 23:07, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

^^^^ !!!! Volunteer Marek (talk) 01:34, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Yes - though I'd loosen this somewhat. I think it is OK to discuss a widely used source prior to article level discussions (however that shouldn't be a RfC - but a request for input - and should have specific examples - e.g. source W is used for X, Y, and Z. I have concerns because of A, B, C. In any case not universal). A blanket deprecation RfC should only be opened if there is an indication of a problem on Wikipedia (e.g. Daily Mail - was widely used). Icewhiz (talk) 05:28, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support --GRuban (talk) 19:43, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support – This should become policy. – Levivich 02:25, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support CThomas³ (talk) 03:08, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support adding to instructions at top of noticeboard. —DIYeditor (talk) 23:48, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose, too WP:CREEP-y. Perhaps as a general suggestion, but not as a rule - as discussed above, it is useful for editors to gauge the general "temperature" of opinion on a particular source, and I don't think we should have any hard restrictions on them doing so. --Aquillion (talk) 18:55, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
  • Full disclosure, I didn't add the header above and keep getting surprised when I see this section pop up on my watchlist. But I'm not sure I at all understand the reference to CRUFT, which you seem to have made twice now. GMG^talk 19:08, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
    • Oops, I meant WP:CREEPy, not WP:CRUFTy. --Aquillion (talk) 19:12, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose per Aquillion. And honestly there are sources out there that people try to use that are beyond the pale in basically any circumstance. So while no source is always reliable, being able to find out if a source is always unreliable is useful. Simonm223 (talk) 18:59, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
  • A more specific issue, which came up for the Newsweek RFC below, is that the precise wording of this suggestion would bar people from making general RFCs when a source is frequently discussed and frequently found reliable. (It would also bar RFCs when a source is frequently discussed with no consensus, which is utterly absurd, since those are the situation that most desperately requires a broader high-participation RFC that might reach some sort of consensus.) Having a broad RFC to settle perennial discussions of all sorts is general policy. I'm not sure we even can bar future RFCs of that nature per WP:LOCALCONSENSUS and WP:CCC. The whole idea of "let's have an RFC to set the rules under which people can make future RFCs" seems both WP:CREEP-y and sketchy. --Aquillion (talk) 19:09, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
    • 100% on the issue of perennial discussion and general policy. Simonm223 (talk) 19:11, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
    • That makes sense, we cannot change the rules for RfCs without an RfC advertised as doing such. I was thinking more along the lines of "advice" at the top of this page. Something to the effect that starting a formal RfC for every question about a source may overload the RfC process and limit participation. —DIYeditor (talk) 19:15, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
  • The problem is... no source is ever “always unreliable”... if nothing else, every source will be reliable for citing a quote from that source (and is, in fact, the MOST reliable source for that purpose). Blueboar (talk) 19:26, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

I disagree with the exception for quotes and opinion statements that is often trotted out. If a quote hasn't been repeated by reliable sources, it fails W:WEIGHT; if it has, why not just cite the reliable source? –dlthewave ☎ 17:51, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

If we're at a point where we're discussing whether a source is "always unreliable" or just "mostly unreliable", then we shouldn't use that source. François Robere (talk) 19:10, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

• This is incorrect on two points. First, there are, in fact, "always unusable" sources, ones that can never be cited in any context; in particular, WP:USERGENERATED sources can never be cited, fullstop - no context exists under which it is ever appropriate to cite one. But more generally, most of these RFCs and discussions are asking about whether a source can be used for anything except the opinion of its author. There are a huge number of sources that are clearly not usable outside that extremely specific context. Context matters for some aspects of WP:RS, but not all of them - there are ways to fall RS severely enough to render a source totally unusable in any situation. --Aquillion (talk) 02:13, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

• Strong oppose for the following reasons:

1. There's value in discussing the general reliability of a source - be it a writer, a publisher, or a specific creation - which may or may not have a reputation for reliability among experts. Do musicologists often cite Peter Schickele? No (though not for lack of talent), and the current rules allow me to reflect that with an RfC if the question arises.
2. The proposal assumes general RfCs are wasteful in terms of editors' time and effort, but the fact of the matter is that one general RfC is much less wasteful than a whole bunch of specific ones. If one is only allowed to bring fourth a general RfC after a "preponderance" of specific threads have been opened, then how much time would we have we wasted on those threads? And this is assuming good faith.
   1. BTW, how much is "a preponderance"? Is five a preponderance? Ten? Do you really want an editor to be "legally" able to open five threads on a bogus source in five different articles before someone is able to bring them here?
3. The purpose of RfCs is to resolve disputes, but by requiring that previous threads "have decided the source is unreliable" we'd be preventing disputes from ever reaching the RfC stage. After all, what's the point of an RfC if we already have a consensus? Just ban RfCs altogether.

Bottom line: if you really believe there's a problem with too many general RfCs being brought in, then there's a much better proposal on the table by Alsee. François Robere (talk) 19:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support It's the closest thing that approaches the purposes of WP:V judging in context, and it would tend to avoid the WP:NOTAFORUM stuff these open ended queries get. Alanscottwalker (talk) 22:34, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose Seems to not only be about RFCs; too bureaucratic for a noticeboard. —PaleoNeonate – 01:05, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support The note at the top of this noticeboard clearly says that discussions should be about whether sources are reliable for specific purposes. Also, WP:V and other sourcing policies clearly state that reliability can only be judged in context. I don't think these general RFC should be completely banned, but people are opening them on sources that have never been discussed on the noticeboard, or for sources that are essentially never used in articles anyways. That just clutters up the noticeboard with useless junk. Red Rock Canyon (talk) 01:30, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose. Prefer Alsee's proposal, which applies the same treatment to the entire reliability spectrum. — Newslinger talk 01:49, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose "preponderance" - some level of prior consideration might be worthwhile, but the phrasing indicates that a more significant number is needed, perhaps unnecessarily restrictive Nosebagbear (talk)
• Mixed (mostly support Icewhiz's modification): I agree that opening an RFC in the absence of any indication that anyone has ever attempted to use a source is kind of waste of time, but asking editors to open multiple WP:RSN discussions about an obviously unreliable source before finally having an RFC would be an even bigger waste of time. If I have a dispute over a source Rense.com that reaches a point where it's necessary to open a noticeboard discussion, then why not just go ahead and deprecate to save everyone the trouble of revisiting a clearly terrible source in the future? Specific content disputes should be the starting point, but maybe we should make allowances for editors (emphasis on the plural) to agree to broaden a discussion if a particular source looks like it warrants it.Nblund ^talk
• Support - absolutely! It's in our PAGs. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 02:38, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Aquillion's proposal

I suggest discouraging any repetitive objections to such general-purpose discussions and RFCs that aren't clearly backed up by whatever outcome we reach here. If there's no consensus to remove them, or if we've agreed to allow them under certain circumstances, then posting near-identical comments to several of them at once objecting to them in identical terms, like this is WP:POINTy. (Not to call that one set of edits out - it's the most recent example, but others have done similar things in the past.) The reality is that such discussions have been accepted practice for a long time, and absent an actual RFC against them or some other indication that that practice has changed, trying to shout them down by responding to all of them at once with identical objections isn't constructive. The appropriate way to halt a common practice you find objectionable is to first try and establish a centralized consensus against it, not to try and force through an objection that lacks such clear consensus through disruptively repeating your interpretation as fact even when after it's failed to reach consensus. Posting identical "bad RFC!" messages on a whole bunch of discussions at once isn't the way to move forwards, especially if there isn't really a clear consensus backing that objection up. Merely having a strong opposition to particular sorts of discussions, or strongly believing that they're against some policy, isn't sufficient justification for disrupting them like that if there's no clear consensus backing you up. Obviously this would just be a general guideline - people could still object to individual ones they feel are particularly unhelpful, but mass-copy-pasting an otherwise off-topic objection to every single RFC of a particular type that you think we shouldn't be having ought to require at least some consensus to back you up. --Aquillion (talk) 01:09, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support as proposer. The whole point of this centralized discussion is to settle this in a clean fashion so it doesn't constantly spill out and disrupt other discussions with meta-arguments. --Aquillion (talk) 01:09, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. The constant obstruction caused by these objections, written into multiple unrelated discussions without consideration of the sources being discussed, is indeed disruptive. The results of this RfC should settle this matter definitively. — Newslinger talk 01:40, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Bad question. You refer to use of the words "bad RfC" (in this case by FOARP but I have done it more often). You are alleging that saying that is "disruptive" and that someone has tried to "shout down" others. These are conduct accusations. Replying "oppose" to a conduct accusation is (I believe) an error, since it implies acceptance that the proposal is legitimate in this context. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 01:54, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
• Bad Proposal If the outcome of this RfC is that we shouldn't have those types of RfCs, then that objection is the correct objection to make. It doesn't matter if you're objecting to 1 bad RfC or 10 - they would all be bad RfCs. If the outcome of that RfC is that we should have those types of RfCs, then that objection shouldn't be made even once. Galestar (talk) 02:01, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

• Right, but what happens if (as seems extremely likely at this point) this RFC is closed with no consensus? Those discussions keep happening, and the same few people keep posting the same few identical objections on all of them? I don't think that that's a reasonable way to proceed. --Aquillion (talk) 04:22, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Your proposal starts with Regardless of the outcome of this RFC. This proposal is only even possible if 1 of the 3 outcomes is arrived at... Galestar (talk) 04:24, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

And ends with ...that aren't clearly backed up by whatever outcome we reach here. Most of the proposals above would allow them under certain circumstances, so I worded it broadly in the sense of ie. obviously comments reminding people of a clear outcome here would be fine. (And, obviously, you are incorrect about 1 of the 3; there's also the situation where none of the options reach a clear consensus.) Nonetheless, I'll remove the first bit to avoid confusion. --Aquillion (talk) 04:29, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Okay I guess I didn't quite understand some of the nuance at first. I still think that this proposal should only be considered once its decided what kind of objections are allowed/disallowed/undecided. Maybe I just think too linearly and don't want to jump ahead to the part where we decide how many objections at a time are okay when we haven't yet decided (or failed-to-decide?) which objections are okay. Galestar (talk) 04:47, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

• Bad proposal - WP:NOTAFORUM is a pretty basic rule on Wikipedia, and if people on this page want to repeatedly flout it by engaging in context-free, discursive "Which media sources do you feel are bad?" style discussions, then you betcha I'm going to point that out. It also clearly states what should and should not be RFC'd on this page right at the top, pointing out that an RFC flouts this can be no more wrong than pointing out that an AFD nomination fails WP:BEFORE, or that an RFC is wrongly factored (both of which are very common). FOARP (talk) 07:16, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Support as per proposer. Bacondrum (talk) 23:00, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose as consensus can change and the proposal to disallow further RfCs about past RfCs doesn't allow for CCC. --RightCowLeftCoast (Moo) 11:04, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

  This proposal does not "disallow further RfCs about past RfCs". It discourages "repetitive objections to such general-purpose discussions and RFCs". — Newslinger talk 11:19, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Adoring Nanny's Concern and proposal

Appears to be just a simple yet grave misunderstanding of how WP:CONTEXTMATTERS is applied to arguments. ToThAc (talk) 01:16, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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The problem I see with blanket rules about what is and is not reliable is that it replaces using one's brain to figure it out. Effectively, WP:CONTEXTMATTERS carries no weight. See this discussion where I was in effect told that it was inappropriate to actually examine the evidence in the various sources and come to an evidence-based conclusion, which is exactly what WP:CONTEXTMATTERS implies one should do. Instead, the accepted thing appears to be to blindly follow certain rules about what is and is not reliable. And that makes people cynical about Wikipedia. Therefore, I suggest that what needs to happen is that WP:CONTEXTMATTERS needs to become policy that is actually used, rather than merely a "policy" statement that sits there but doesn't carry any weight in a decision about what is reliable and what isn't. Adoring nanny (talk) 01:35, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

• I'm not sure what you're proposing. WP:V, a policy, already states that "The appropriateness of any source depends on the context." In the same paragraph, it defines the reliability spectrum: "The best sources have a professional structure in place for checking or analyzing facts, legal issues, evidence, and arguments. The greater the degree of scrutiny given to these issues, the more reliable the source." WP:CONTEXTMATTERS states, "In general, the more people engaged in checking facts, analyzing legal issues, and scrutinizing the writing, the more reliable the publication." Reliability depends on context, but some sources are more reliable in general than others. — Newslinger talk 01:58, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

  ​Additionally, your application of WP:CONTEXTMATTERS in Talk:Daniel Holtzclaw § Undue weight and fringe viewpoints (your linked discussion) is incorrect. You said in Special:Diff/893517711, "The soundness of one's conclusions -- the question of whether or not they follow logically from the evidence one is examining -- trump everything." That is against policy; we must "fairly [represent] all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources" (WP:DUE). WP:CONTEXTMATTERS is not a trump card that allows us to elevate a fringe opinion that is not supported by other reliable sources. If a person is convicted in court, and nearly all reliable sources report that they are guilty, it would be improper to grant a false balance to the minority perspective of a news reporter who claims that they are innocent, when that perspective is not corroborated by other reliable sources. — Newslinger talk 20:06, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

• Hi Adoring nanny, I just read the discussion you are referring to and I thought "Everyone in prison is innocent", if the court found him guilty and reliable sources report as much, that's the end of the story as far as Wikipedia is concerned. If he contests the conviction and it is overturned, then he is vindicated, otherwise it's just another in a long line of criminals claiming to be innocent. Any personal assessment of the evidence is original research. Bacondrum (talk) 22:58, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Also, context matters should be applied to sources that are generally unreliable, in that if a source is generally unreliable it should be seen in context as generally unreliable...hope that makes sense? ie: a dishonest source may tell the truth from time to time, but they cannot be trusted because they are generally dishonest. Bacondrum (talk) 23:03, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Liliputing.com blog as a reliable source?

It is a blog. Although it lists 4 contributors in addition to "editor" Brad Linder in the about page, in reality Brad Linder is essentially the only author in 2019 (1 exception), and there have been only 2 authors since February 2016.

I've been recently tempted to use it as a source, a couple times, to change a primary source to a secondary source, like magic; however, this seems wrong.

It was suggested to bring it up for discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:/e/_(operating_system)&diff=913365830&oldid=913365695

I'd appreciate other views. Below are more details. Thanks.

It has been used as a source for many articles in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=liliputing&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&ns0=1

95 results

Sometimes it is called "blog" in Wikipedia References, sometimes not.

I believe it mostly re-words and repeats press releases, and blog posts by companies. An example, recently:

https://liliputing.com/2019/09/first-batch-of-purism-librem-5-linux-smartphones-ships-in-late-september.html#comments

versus

https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-shipping-announcement/

In the liliputing blog post above, comments seem to confirm this:

"Some Guy: ...Also, this article seems to have been posted before anything about this is on purism’s website."

"Brad Linder: I guess someone forgot to tell them that the embargo lifted at 11:00AM 🙂"

"Daily Deals" are almost indistinguishable from "articles." https://liliputing.com/category/deals

The about page calls Brad Linder editor; however, he is also the primary author, and the ONLY author for the last 8 months, with one exception by Lee Mathews on 8/26/2019.

It says, "Liliputing has been mentioned on hundreds of news, and technology web sites," and gives 11 examples. However, 1 - Computer World is a broken link, most are several years old, and 1 - Techmeme, "works by scraping news websites and blogs,..."

https://liliputing.com/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?sort=relevance&search=Brad+Linder+liliputing&title=Special%3ASearch&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1

57 results

Lee Mathews https://liliputing.com/author/lee Last article 08/26/2019, but this is the first since 12/26/2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?sort=relevance&search=Lee+Mathews+liliputing&title=Special%3ASearch&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1

1 result

Lory Gil https://liliputing.com/author/lory Last article 02/05/2016

K. T. Bradford https://liliputing.com/author/ktbradford Last article 08/20/2014

James Diaz https://liliputing.com/author/cybergusa Last article 09/16/2011

The site warns: "Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by Skimlinks and Amazon's and eBay's affiliate programs."

It is heavily loaded with affiliate javascript from MANY different sources, as seen with noscript, etc.

-- Yae4 (talk) 18:31, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

• Ugh. That site is basically a collection of advertisements. Guy (help!) 21:52, 9 September 2019 (UTC)
• Generally unreliable. Liliputing a group blog. Its about page lists 5 staff members and occasional mentions in more reliable sources, which makes it a bit better than other group blogs of this size. However, the blog posts on this site tend to be short and promotionally toned, nowhere near the editorial quality of established blogs like Engadget (RSP entry). I don't think Liliputing is a good source for technology topics, and I definitely wouldn't count its articles toward a subject's notability. — Newslinger talk 02:58, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Example of editing by readers:

Victor C: Brad, just letting you know, the WIN is mono. They had to remove the left speaker for the fan...

Brad Linder: Whoops! Fixing that now.

https://liliputing.com/2016/10/gpd-win-handheld-gaming-pc-quick-review.html , Reference 14 here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPD_Win -- Yae4 (talk) 16:55, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

While it's SPAMmy, It can certainly be used in a limited capacity. For instance on the Kodi (software) article, https://liliputing.com/2013/05/xbmc-running-in-linux-on-a-tv-box-with-an-amlogic-am8726-mx-chip-video.html is used to support that the software supports the AMLogic VPU chip. This is not an unreasonable use. Good to see that they make corrections to articles, which is good editorial oversight. It should not be used for anything other that plain, factual coverage. Walter Görlitz (talk) 14:57, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Making corrections after initially publishing inaccurate information, after readers point out the mistakes, is not "editorial oversight." Editorial oversight is having an editor, independent of the author, who catches mistakes before publishing. At this blog, the author is the editor, or vice versa. -- Yae4 (talk) 15:17, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Blogs do not generally update their posts. If there is the ability and will to recognize errors and omissions, that implies that there is some editorial oversight. Walter Görlitz (talk) 15:22, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

I understand where you're coming from. I wanted to use infosec-handbook.eu (blog) as a source too, but couldn't because it doesn't meet the criteria. BTW, it also updates based on reader feedback (and has more active authors). If we use liliputing for that video, then we could use any blog with a fancy appearance and tons of advertisements as a way of including youtube videos. -- Yae4 (talk) 15:32, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

What you were restricted in using that other website's content for is not up for discussion here.

We're not using the video itself, in the case I quoted, it's a specific discussion that is being used to support one fact. It is not generally reliable, as is the case with most other blogs. However, even blogs may be used under some circumstances. This is not a binary use vs. do not use situation, it's a large scale and judgment must be used to determine whether an entry can be used to support a fact.

Also, as stated above, it cannot be used to help determine if a topic meets WP:GNG. Walter Görlitz (talk) 15:38, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

The point was other blogs also do make corrections based on reader feeback, contrary to your claim.

Go down the list; Liliputing breaks most criteria: NO editorial oversight (aside from readers), self-published, blog, examples of making mistakes, sponsored content or primary purpose of showing you ads and getting you to click affiliate links. As I understand the process, if two of these discussions conclude it's a non-reliable source, then it goes on the "binary" list as such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources#Questionable_and_self-published_sources

If that "one fact" is really worthy of being included, you should be able to find a reliable source for it. -- Yae4 (talk) 16:21, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: Liliputing

Is Liliputing (liliputing.com) a reliable source for technology-related topics, or should it be considered a self-published group blog? — Newslinger talk 20:35, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Survey (Liliputing)

• Self-published source. I'll repeat what I originally wrote on 10 September: Liliputing a group blog. Its about page lists 5 staff members and occasional mentions in more reliable sources, which makes it a bit better than other group blogs of this size. However, the blog posts on this site tend to be short and promotionally toned, nowhere near the editorial quality of established blogs like Engadget (RSP entry). I don't think Liliputing is a good source for technology topics, and I definitely wouldn't count its articles toward a subject's notability. — Newslinger talk 20:35, 3 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable. Advert-infested clickbait of no real merit and no evident quality assurance, much better sources exist. Guy (help!) 21:13, 3 October 2019 (UTC)
• Generally Unreliable Anything but a factual statement is not reliable. Cannot be used for GNG or other reliability criteria. Walter Görlitz (talk) 23:54, 3 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable. Should not be used as a source. -- Yae4 (talk) 02:02, 4 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable. (bot brought me here) Not anywhere close to the level of Wired, ZDNet, or even krebsonsecurity(Brian Krebs).---Avatar317^(talk) 05:32, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable. . For Christmas' sake, I can blog that I am God, if anyone built a church for me, I'd instantly be an atheist. No verifiable facts, no studies, no external review, just a claim. Secondary sources are used for a reason, hopefully review and verification. I suggest either filing this in the circular file, file 86 or file 13, aka the bit bucket.Wzrd1 (talk) 04:42, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (Liliputing)

• I've created a new subsection for the RfC to meet the "brief and neutral" requirement for RfC statements. Yae4 originally created the RfC in Special:Diff/919418976, but the RfC statement was too long to be transcluded into the RfC category lists. Discussion on Liliputing originally started at Talk:/e/ (operating system), then sprawled to other pages including Talk:Kodi (software). According to Yae4, Liliputing was used in 95 articles on 9 September, but this count has since declined to 12 articles   after removals. Pinging previous commenters JzG and Walter Görlitz as a courtesy. — Newslinger talk 20:35, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Notified: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Computing, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Computing/Computer hardware task force, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Software, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Software/Free and open-source software task force, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Reliability — Newslinger talk 20:44, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: "The Western Journal" (September)

The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

There is a consensus that The Western Journal (WJ) is generally unreliable.

The RFC asked to pick from three options: (a) deprecate, (b) list as generally unreliable, and (c) something else (open-ended answer). Six editors have supported (a) and seven editors (one editor said WJ is unreliable, but did not specifically request deprecation) have supported (b). Those who have supported deprecation have provided little or no evidence to justify deprecation. One editor who supported deprecation has weirdly cited editors who supported another option. One editor who supported (b) said there is some evidence of publishing corrections and hence WJ should not be deprecated.

One of the prerequisites of deprecation is that a source is generally unreliable. All participants have indicated one way or another that WJ is unreliable, so that is not in dispute. But just because (b) implies (a) does not mean that the converse is true. Therefore there is no consensus for deprecation. Politrukki (talk) 14:10, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

---

Should The Western Journal be deprecated? Or listed as generally unreliable? Or something else? X1\ (talk) 20:34, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

For the WesternJournal.com, see earlier Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 271#Western Journal, and Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#The Western Journal for comments on The Western Journal's reputation. Note: I have only been in a previous "rating", and haven't kept up on potential process changes here. X1\ (talk) 22:56, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

I pulled it from Mikhail Abyzov (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) and Kyle Kashuv (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views). The first is a blatantly bad ref and use of that ref. The Kashuv ref isn't remotely as bad, but appears to be the type of warmed-over press that the NYTimes identifies.

I'm only seeing 12 uses as references at this time --Ronz (talk) 17:09, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. I see westernjournal.com  . X1\ (talk) 00:46, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Survey (The Western Journal)

• Unreliable as a source for facts, and too extreme for opinion in most cases. It should be deprecated as a source. -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:42, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate it This analysis by the NYT seems to be all that needs to be said about this disinformation outlet. Simonm223 (talk) 12:37, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
• This probably doesn't need an RfC - it's obviously not a reliable source for anything other than ABOUTSELF. Guy (help!) 21:50, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
• Same as BullRangifer (above), agree with u:Simonm223 and u:JzG. X1\ (talk) 21:22, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable based on the Times coverage and the fact that it managed to get itself blacklisted from Google News. --Aquillion (talk) 08:01, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable per the RS on their wiki page. However, per those same RS, their corrections page is a recent addition and they did retract an article that was wrong. In light of this, deprecation is going too far. Adoring nanny (talk) 11:08, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable getting blacklisted from two major news aggregators is bad enough, but the NYT coverage nails it for me. Doug Weller talk 15:18, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable - NYT story makes clear that the site does not have any actual reporters of its own, and that its content is essentially just aggregated and rewritten stories from other conservative sources such as Breitbart. There is thus no reason to use the site regardless of reliability - anything they publish can be found elsewhere in original format if we wanted it. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 15:38, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate. Clearly identified as unreliable by several sources. Furthermore it generates little or no original reporting, any citation should point to the actual original news report (with Reliability evaluated in terms of that source). There is therefore little or nothing lost by deprecating this source. I considered just closing this as unanimous WP:SNOW. However given the social-media footprint and strong partisan affiliation, this case warrants burial under a large strong consensus to firmly put to rest any attempts to re-litigate this issue. Alsee (talk) 15:34, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable. Utter garbage. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 15:35, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate per Simonm223. · · · Peter Southwood ^(talk): 04:57, 22 September 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate per Doug/NBSB — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 03:48, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable as per NYT coverage.-Ich (talk) 21:45, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (The Western Journal)

• Comment Their corrections are here. [1] They also say at the bottom of every article that they are "committed to truth and accuracy in all of our reporting." This certainly gives an impression of reliability. However, prior to voting, I am interested in what evidence others may bring to the table. Adoring nanny (talk) 02:50, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Fox News had "Fair And Balanced" as a strapline. That was bullshit, by common consent. Guy (help!) 21:51, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

@Adoring nanny: Have you followed Western Journal long? It appears, per their wp page RSs, that had serious credibility issues regarding wp standards for RSs. Can you speak to how they now intend to use the westernjournal.com/corrections section? If they don't correct the articles themselves, a separate page will often be ignored. X1\ (talk) 21:17, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

No. Hence my interest in other people's evidence. Adoring nanny (talk) 00:09, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

@Adoring nanny: Some references used used previously here. X1\ (talk) 19:01, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

@Adoring nanny: Has Western Journal ever retracted an article? Do they use credible references within their articles (citing them as sources)? X1\ (talk) 21:20, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

@Adoring nanny:, do they ever publish a Trump statement and point out it's a lie? Do they do this consistently, so that readers get the impression that most of what he says can't be trusted (because that's the case)? Or do Trump supporters find support for their delusional beliefs by reading content at the Western Journal? -- BullRangifer (talk) 23:41, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Why badger me about this? I already voted above. Adoring nanny (talk) 17:25, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The Epoch Times, once again

The Epoch Times is currently listed as a questionable source on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources and usually described as a "falun-gong mouthpiece" in previous discussions. They have recently come under scrutiny for being a Trumpian partisan outlet as well, to the point where Facebook banned them from further advertising on their platform. At the moment they still have those same video ads running on YouTube, with a guy snapping his fingers to changing headlines, using alt-right bingo buzzwords like "mainstream media", "hidden agendas", or "Russia hoax" that could've just as well come from a Trump campaign spokesperson. I think it is time to reclassify this website in the same category as the The Daily Caller and the National Enquirer. --bender235 (talk) 23:58, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

• The Epoch Times (RSP entry) is currently classified under "No consensus, unclear, or additional considerations apply", but we haven't had any noticeboard discussions since the August NBC News report "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times". Deprecating The Epoch Times would require consensus in a formal request for comment, which this discussion could easily be converted into. — Newslinger talk 02:47, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Bias does not make it not RS as such, usable with attribution.Slatersteven (talk) 08:16, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Exactly. This is a typical "biased source" and as such can be used per policy with appropriate attribution. My very best wishes (talk) 15:18, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

The Epoch Times isn't a matter of bias. It's a matter that it deliberately and calculatedly publishes misinformation. It should be deprecated. Simonm223 (talk) 15:32, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

• Bias doesn't make a source unusable, but intentionally misleading its readers does. The Facebook ban was for that sort of misinformation, which I feel is a decent reason to consider them unreliable - Facebook doesn't ban ads from news sources lightly (after all, doing so costs them money.) NBC News' coverage describes them as spreading conspiracy theories about Trump's political enemies, and the New York Times says the same thing, which would at the very least make them a WP:FRINGE source, not one we can really use for very much. --Aquillion (talk) 17:09, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yeah this isn't just bias. In addition to more or less openly campaigning for Trump, they've got credulous reporting on Qanon and Pizzagate, as well as vaccine scaremongering, and viral cancer quackery. Reporting from NBC News, Buzzfeed make it pretty clear that they're pushing false or misleading viral content related to contemporary politics. This is exactly the sort of content that has no place on Wikipedia. Nblund ^talk 17:26, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

That does not look good at all... My very best wishes (talk) 18:34, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

• Blacklist ASAP. How has this propaganda machine not been blacklisted yet? It's really remarkable—it couldn't be clearer that under no circumstance is The Epoch Times a reliable source, IMO. :bloodofox: (talk) 18:40, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Support RFC I'm not sure if this came up the previous discussion, but the Washington Post also reported on some issues with Wikipedia's use of the Epoch Times at the entry for Hunter Biden. This search of main space links turns up a number of cases where they're cited for pseudo-science (this story at Past life regression, and heavy use of this crazy story at This Man), and it is still cited on a number of BLPs and on stories related to Trump-Russia (Joseph Misfud, Paul Manafort). It's even cited at the entry for QAnon. The site is ubiquitous on social media, and it looks just presentable enough that users might sometimes mistake it for a reliable source. Based on this, I think its worth establishing a general consensus. Nblund ^talk 19:01, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: The Epoch Times

Which of the following best describes the reliability of The Epoch Times (RSP entry)?

• Option 1: Generally reliable for news
• Option 2: Unclear or additional considerations apply
• Option 3: Generally unreliable for news
• Option 4: Publishes false or fabricated information, and should be deprecated as in the 2017 RfC of the Daily Mail (RSP entry)

— Newslinger talk 19:13, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Context matters: Please indicate if you have different opinions on different aspects of The Epoch Times's news coverage, such as edition (the English edition at theepochtimes.com   and the Chinese edition at epochtimes.com  ), topic (e.g. Chinese politics, American politics, international politics, and Falun Gong-related topics), and year of publication. The closer is advised to evaluate whether there are separate consensuses for different aspects of the publication. — Newslinger talk 19:13, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Survey (The Epoch Times)

• Deprecate ASAP. Under no circumstance should this Falun Gong propaganda machine be considered a reliable source. The links provided by other users above make the source's utter unreliability crystal clear. For those new to the topic, I recommend this recent write up (The New Republic), think Russia Today—as the New Republic article puts it: "The Times has built a global propaganda machine, similar to Russia’s Sputnik or RT, that pushes a mix of alternative facts and conspiracy theories that has won it far-right acolytes around the world." :bloodofox: (talk) 19:24, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• 2 or 3 This isn't a good source, but judging by its complete usage, I don't see a reason for general prohibition on its use. The domains theepochtimes.com (English version) and epochtimes.com (Chinese version - is this RfC about both?) are used 1,348 times in Wikipedia. Most that I glimpsed through were rather uncontroversial, especially from the Chinese domain. The discussion above was rather insincere in my view. The Facebook advert ban was due to circumventing Facebook's political advertisement rules, not its news coverage. A QAnon story is being cited in support of deprecating it, but all I see in that story is reporting what the QAnon is, not advocating for it. Yeah, they also have more trashy stuff like the vaccine story as a "VIEWPOINTS" article, but so do many other lower-end sources like The Huffington Post. As for being pro-Trump: WP:PARTISAN applies and it should not be used for controversial statements. It's not feasible to deprecate all lower-end sources from the right-wing of the political spectrum. --Pudeo (talk) 20:06, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

According to the Epoch Times, they are unaware of why they were blocked from Facebook ([2]). Whether that's true or not is unclear, as the source is itself not unreliable, but what is clear is that the Epoch Times is a propaganda outlet for Falun Gong—it's about reliable and journalistic as Russia Today. :bloodofox: (talk) 20:56, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

The articles states If the Q posts are real, they may indicate that the Trump administration has established an alternate channel to speak to supporters, bypassing news outlets and social media altogether for something more direct. They're clearly pushing this as a plausible idea. Also: they were banned by Facebook because they created sockpuppet domains so that they could continue to run conspiracy themed ads that failed to meet Facebook's absurdly lax standards. This isn't just a low quality source. Nblund ^talk 16:14, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

• Deprecate. "Context matters" is not an appropriate approach for a source that just makes stuff up while claiming not to - David Gerard (talk) 22:41, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 2. I'd say close to RT or Global Times for Chinese politics and controversial statements, close to CS Monitor or Deseret News for general topics. Epoch Times is a publication associated with a new religious movement suppressed by China. It's obviously biased against China and its ruling party (thus WP:PARTISAN applies), but it runs both ways: Global Times is unlikely to be much better of a source for Epoch Times than vice versa. feminist (talk) 02:48, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate. The Epoch Times peddles unconfirmed rumours, conspiracy theories such as QAnon, and antivax propaganda, causing itself to be banned by Facebook. See NBC expose, Washington Post article, and NYT article. According to The New Republic, its European sites are even worse, and have become the mouthpiece of the far right fringe. -Zanhe (talk) 05:46, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate As per sources on the Epoch Times page they "peddle conspiracy theories about the 'Deep State,' and criticize 'fake news' media" and "its network of news sites and YouTube channels has made it a powerful conduit for the internet’s fringier conspiracy theories, including anti-vaccination propaganda and QAnon, to reach the mainstream." AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 05:53, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• 2 As I said bias is not a criteria for exclusion. We can use it if we attribute it.Slatersteven (talk) 08:25, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate - per Zanhe above and MarioGom below. starship.paint (talk) 08:28, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• 4 (Deprecate) or 3 Some news pieces are just fine, but usually a more realiable source exists for the same events. On the other hand, they insist on pushing for WP:FRINGE theories, they use news pieces as a hook for conspiracies (see my comment in the discussion) and you cannot just single them out by excluding opinion pieces. This undermines the reliability of The Epoch Times as a whole. Their magazines include a lot of WP:FRINGE commentary of notable wingnuts and charlatans, which may be useful for attributed quotes of these subjects' views when they are WP:DUE. --MarioGom (talk) 08:34, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate - per Zanhe--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:13, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Generally unreliable, would need a very strong reason to include this as a source for anything. Guy (help!) 12:41, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate - The Epoch Times was founded as a propaganda outlet for a new religious movement and has, over time, gotten less reliable rather than more. While it was previously a relatively trashy outlet that was generally untrustworthy for anything controversial but might serve for routine, non-controversial information, it has transformed into a platform for pseudoscience, conspiracism and misinformation. The veneer of respectability and the ubiquity of Epoch Times newspapers in major urban centers makes it a substantial risk as a source of RS-looking misinformation on Wikipedia. We need to eliminate this source once and for all. Simonm223 (talk) 13:33, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate both versions. A source that merely has a perspective (even a strong perspective) is usable, but a biased source that also spreads conspiracy theories or fringe theories in the service of their bias is not; it's clear that this source lacks the reputation for fact-checking and accuracy that WP:RS requires. Since both versions are under the same management and seem intended to serve the same purpose, neither seems like a usable source. --Aquillion (talk) 15:09, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate This does not seem reliable, especially given its history of consipracy theories and support of what elsewhere could be considered Fake news. --- FULBERT (talk) 02:07, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate seems appropriate here because they publish conspiracy theories and hoaxes, and they've willfully mislead readers and advertisers. From what I can tell, the overwhelming majority of the content is unattributed aggregations of other news stories. The writers for the site are doing dozens of stories per day. Jack Phillips wrote 15 on October 8, none of those stories appear to involve any original reporting, and there are plenty of other sources for all of them. The content that is "original" to the site is garbage. They've repeatedly pushed QAnon, and now "Spygate", and their "wellness" reporting is rife with quackery. Stories like this one appear to be unmarked advertising, and they've given over a decade of breathlessly positive coverage of the Shen Yun performing arts company. None of that coverage discloses that the performing group is a project of the Falun Gong. Obviously there are worse sources out there, but this one seems to pose a high risk of causing a problem here because they have the look of a credible website Nblund ^talk 16:57, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate. No reason for an encyclopedia to use such a low-quality publication. Neutrality^talk 18:20, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 2- per feminist and Slatersteven. --ColumbiaXY (talk) 19:00, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 3 (first choice) or "2" (second choice). Looks similar to Fox news or RT (Russia). My very best wishes (talk) 20:25, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate/Option 4 Too unreliable. If they have reliable articles, it will be covered by other news outlets too. The Banner talk 21:21, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 3 I dislike the trend towards deprecating sources willy-nilly. I think it should be reserved for extreme cases. I looked at some of the examples of allegedly "fake" reporting listed here, and my impression was that the Epoch Times was writing a story about something that didn't need a story written about it, but I didn't see anything that was obviously false. That said, I couldn't find a corrections page on their site, so I'd go with option 3. Adoring nanny (talk) 00:07, 10 October 2019 (UTC)
• 1, 2, or 3 - depends on the context I think, and not a broad category. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 03:46, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 or possibly 3, per Nblund. If a person with a Wikipedia article wrote an opinion piece that appeared on Epoch Times, I'd first ask myself why they couldn't get it published elsewhere, and potentially use it with direct attribution, but never for regular news reporting. I don't think they'd tamper with other people's opinion pieces but that's a low bar. Anything Epoch Times can provide reliable coverage for should have reliable coverage elsewhere.-Ich (talk) 21:54, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 per Zanhe and others above. Bobbychan193 (talk) 06:20, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 - Epoch Times is an unreliable source, publishing alarmist "news" stories that are often fringe theories or conspiracy theories. Definitely not up to the standards of Wikipedia for a reliable source. Netherzone (talk) 12:35, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate - Epoch Times has always been unreliable for Chinese political news, but it seems to have been moving toward fringe conspiracy theories on a host of other issues, as others have highlighted. I don't think it meets our standards for general usage.--Danaman5 (talk) 00:49, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 / Deprecate: There's been weak to no support in this discussion for ET's journalistic integrity. Per :bloodofox: and Nblund: while the patently partisan bias alone isn't enough to justify its deprecation, there's been much ado about how far their writers will alter their stories to sway readers towards their own views. →‎ GS →‎ ☎ → 10:12, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (The Epoch Times)

• I was initially reluctant to start this RfC, but many editors in the above discussion proposed measures that should undergo wider community review. With 5 previous noticeboard discussions, The Epoch Times is a controversial source that deserves a thorough examination. Pinging previous commenters Bender235, Slatersteven, My very best wishes, Simonm223, Aquillion, Nblund, and Bloodofox as a courtesy. — Newslinger talk 19:13, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
  • @Newslinger: please clarify whether this would deprecate the Chinese edition (epochtimes.com - 519 uses) in addition to the English version (theepochtimes.com - 829 uses)? --Pudeo (talk) 20:09, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
    • ​That's a good question. The options are just suggestions and it's up to individual editors to specify which editions of The Epoch Times their classifications apply to. If there are two separate consensuses for the English edition and the Chinese edition, we would create a split entry on the perennial sources list, e.g. RT (general topics) and RT (controversial topics, international politics), and the editions would be treated differently. An opinion without a qualifier would apply to all aspects of The Epoch Times (including edition, topic, and time period) as a whole. I'll clarify this below the RfC statement. — Newslinger talk 20:15, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Notified: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject China, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject United States, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Asian Americans, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion/Falun Gong work group, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion/New religious movements work group, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Reliability — Newslinger talk 04:55, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

• The Epoch Times pushes for all kinds of WP:FRINGE theories, not just QAnon and antivax as others mentioned. They have a lot of articles promoting the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory (The Communist Sexual Agenda, The Infiltration of Marxism Into Higher Education (Part 1 of 2)). Note that this is not confined to opinion sections, they also use news pieces as coatrack for it. Let's take Hundreds of Young Transgender People Asking for Help to Return to Original Sex: Report. If we wanted to use that story, we could just use the original from Sky News ([3]), since The Epoch Times just uses the Sky News report as a hook to promote theories about communists promoting homosexuality to undermine the family and so on. --MarioGom (talk) 07:03, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
• Note also the push for pseudoscientific theories on medicine such as functional medicine, promotion of bogus claims on cancer treatment by Cancer Treatment Centers of America#Controversy, etc. It seems related items have been used as a source in Wikipedia: Woman Has Spiritual Near-Death Experience, Cancer Cured as Result? --MarioGom (talk) 08:54, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Notified: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine MarioGom (talk) 08:54, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

• Why are we even having this discussion? Did someone blank Wikipedia:RSCONTEXT without telling me? Does the FAQ at WT:V which has said "The reliability of a source is entirely dependent on the context of the situation, and the statement it is being used to support" for years, suddenly disappear? This source, like every other source, can only be judged to be reliable in context. It's not "reliable" or "not reliable". As a general rule, this source is going to be "reliable for certain narrowly written and carefully contextualized statements". It may be best to use it with WP:INTEXT attribution. It may not be the best possible source for general information. But reliability is not a yes-or-no situation. The whole concept behind this RFC (also: an RFC on a high-traffic noticeboard? What's going on with that?) is flawed. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:36, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
  • We're having this conversation because the argument has been made that this outlet has equivalent reliability to sources like The Daily Mail and The National Enquirer while still being used as a source in multiple articles. As it is actively anti-reliable as a source, site-wide action is necessary. Simonm223 (talk) 15:42, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
    • Was there a series of real dispute that editors had difficulty resolving? I'm not seeing evidence of that. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:40, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
  • WhatamIdoing: Sources can be used in certain contexts even if they are WP:DEPRECATED. You may have to argue with someone who thinks that deprecated means completely blacklisted, but it should be ok otherwise if it is justified. Do you see any problem with this specific RfC? Or you are against the source deprecation process itself, or maybe the perennial sources list? --MarioGom (talk) 19:40, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
    • I'm against anything that indicates to other editors that the rest of us think don't think they can figure out how to write a decent article without the rest of us telling them to follow some more rules first. People with a classical education might be thinking about the Woes of the Pharisees here, and I admit that it's not far from my mind.
      MarioGom, I see your account is just two and a half years old, so you probably don't remember when Wikipedia:Ignore all rules was taken seriously as a policy, when the article was more important than the rules, and when "You may have to argue with someone" to be permitted to do what was right by an article meant that a policy or process was fundamentally broken. If RS/P results in editors having to argue with mindless rule-followers about whether it's okay to improve an article, and if it's putting the emphasis on what's "allowed" instead of what's best for the article, then I'll be against it. If it provides practical help to editors writing articles, then I'll be all for it. Perhaps you can tell me which category you think it's most likely to fall into. So far, all I see is that the list grows endlessly, and it is largely populated by people who aren't creating much content, and largely used by people who aren't genuinely trying to figure out whether a source is desirable in a particular article. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:52, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
      • The way I look at it (certainly others may feel differently) is that, given the (absolutely appropriate) emphasis on Reliable Sourcing, the RS/P is an incredibly useful tool, especially for new editors who may not have a firm grasp on what constitutes a reliable source or know how to dig through the RSN archives. I know it certainly was for me. I also believe that its usefulness is directly connected to its accuracy, and these discussions help to improve that accuracy by giving an accurate measure of a source's basic credibility. Even RSCONTEXT says "In general, the more people engaged in checking facts, analyzing legal issues, and scrutinizing the writing, the more reliable the publication." Discussions like this help us assign a rough reliability, according to this exact metric, to sources. Yes, context is still important, but that doesn't mean that the New York Times and the National Enquirer should be treated the same, as if they each require the same amount of scrutiny to determine whether a given article in either is acceptable to cite for an article here. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 21:15, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
        • AmbivalentUnequivocality, could you explain that bit about RSCONTEXT better? I'm not sure how it relates. That sentence, in plain English, means "The New York Times, which has more than four thousand employees, is usually more reliable than little tiny newspapers like The Mulberry Advance, whose sole employee has to do everything from selling subscriptions to writing articles to sweeping the floor". I don't see how any discussion on Wikipedia could realistically "help to improve that accuracy", because "according to this exact metric", the only way for a source to become more reliable is to hire more journalists. The number of Wikipedians involved in these RFCs is irrelevant "according to this exact metric". "This exact metric" is about what they do, not about what we do. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:37, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
          • WhatamIdoing Certainly. My reading on that sentence is slightly different than yours. I don't see it as being the same as "More employees = more reliable" because not all publications utilize their employees the same way. It is about how many people are actually engaged in checking facts, analyzing legal issues, and scrutinizing the writing. More employees does not necessarily mean that they have more people doing those things. A large paper could employ thousands of people and still not commit any sizable number of them to fact checking, and a small paper could have relatively few employees but still conduct robust and thorough fact checking on what material they publish. It is what they do with their employees, and how well they do it, that matters. Yes, this metric is about what they do, but our part in it is elucidating what it is that they are doing. Our part is figuring out how robust their reputation for fact checking is, how strong their editorial oversight is, how readily they retract and correct errors. Publications that knowingly publish false claims, or unknowingly publish easily disprovable ones, clearly show a lack of such robustness. We can improve the RS/P by accurately assessing how well a given publication commonly meets these criteria. There is value in having a list that accurately represents the general quality of various sources according to the established criteria of what constitutes reliability, but to do that we must determine how well a given source meets those criteria. I believe that is something we can do, and I believe that discussions like this aid in achieving that goal. Treating every source as though they are all equally likely to produce reliable reporting seems shortsighted to me. Yes, reliability is about what they do. Our discussions do not make a publication reliable or unreliable. But our discussions do help accurately assess whether they are doing the things that are considered indicative of general reliability (Robust fact checking, editorial oversight, etc.), or whether they are engaged in behavior that is indicative of pervasive unreliability (Intentionally publishing false or misleading claims, pushing fringe conspiracy theories, etc.) AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 07:20, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
      • WhatamIdoing: So if I understand correctly, you are against the deprecation of sources itself or this kind of RfC, but you have no particular concern about this specific RfC. I can understand that. It has certainly been problematic for me in the past. For example, when spotting an inaccurate story published at a sourced marked as generally reliable on perennial sources. But that's beyond the scope here, I guess. --MarioGom (talk) 21:40, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
        • That's the issue as I see it, and not beyond consideration here, that commentary must be distinguished from credible news, even in articles that are reporting some news. A neutral point of view doesn't sell many books or newspapers. Jzsj (talk) 07:13, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
          • Frankly I think the use of newsmedia is generally inappropriate for an encyclopedia and leads to many of our woes surrounding WP:RECENTISM, WP:10YT and WP:DUE across the site. When a newsmedia source compounds this problematic character by straight-up fabricating news to push a POV, well, if I think we shouldn't be leaning so hard on the NYT you can imagine what I think about such tabloids. And the Epoch Times, which was founded with the intent of being used as a propaganda outlet is one of the worst of a bad bunch. I'm sure an WP:IAR case might exist where deprecation might prove a challenge, but honestly I don't see it. And avoiding a 99% improvement to avoid a 1% chance of future impediments seems like weak cost-benefit analysis. Simonm223 (talk) 12:06, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
          • ^agreed. The consensus on deprecation can always change, but I have spent some time browsing the site, and I really haven't found a single story that appears reliable and not covered by a more reputable source. The Washington Post reports that the majority of the staffers are mostly part-time/volunteers rather than journalists, so it seems pretty unlikely that you're going to see any real reporting coming from them. Nblund ^talk 17:07, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
            • I agree with Jzsj's point. That's why we avoid {{one source}} articles. Librarians make a distinction between having "a balanced book" and "a balanced library": while there's a place in the world for a balanced book (history textbooks for schoolchildren spring to mind as an example), it's usually better to have multiple books (e.g., a book about a war that argues persuasively that it was all economics, a book that promotes the diplomatic aspects, a book that that focuses on the Great man theory, etc., so that you end up with a balanced view). But you have to read multiple sources to figure out where the sources differ from each other.
              Simonm223, it's always good to find an idealist on the English Wikipedia. ;-)
              Nblund, I believe that's true. However, the definition of "reliable" isn't "the most reputable source we could use for this statement". "Barely reliable" is still reliable. (IMO this source is probably "reliable enough" for some claims. You won't see me seeking it out, however.) WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:14, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
          • Just a warning even about high school history books. It's reliably reported that conservative groups attend trustees meetings as in Texas and New York, and any trustee who approves of a book that criticizes capitalism or American democracy is "history". The few publishers don't take a chance with such books. To get a more objective course in American history one needs to use a college textbook. Jzsj (talk) 17:46, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: VGChartz

Other than sales data, what would best describe the reliability of VGChartz as a whole? (More detailed query below.) ToThAc (talk) 03:20, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

It's already been informally established that VGChartz is unreliable for everything pertaining to sales data. One excerpt from a certain bureaucrat of a non-Wikimedia wiki even summed up the following here:

Due to its popularity and being the most immediately visible source when researching sales data, it's hard not to address VGChartz.

Much has been written about the reliability of VGChartz. As explained on the site's methodology page, it has access to data from an undefined sampling of "retail partners", filling in the rest by guessing based on various trends (while the aforementioned trackers do not have access to every retail chain and do some number of "filling in the blanks", they are proven to track a substantial amount of retailers, unlike VGChartz). The fact that VGChartz numbers have frequently been contradicted by more official channels and other anomalies (In one instance, the site reported the game Arc Rise Fantasia as a best-seller for June 2010 despite the game not being released until the end of July) have led to several sites banning it as a source. As far as the wiki is concerned, VGChartz is not reliable and should not be used as a reference for sales data.

References

However, I have repeatedly seen VGChartz cited in areas other than sales data; most of it is to cite release dates and companies behind certain games, with some relevant news articles as well. Moreover, most of the criticism towards the site is usually limited to just the site's methodology in obtaining sales data. And so as far as Wikipedia is concerned, what options would best describe VGChartz's reliability?

1. Generally reliable
2. Generally reliable, with the exception of sales data (recommend better source)
3. Generally reliable, with the exception of sales data (require better source)
4. Generally unreliable

Cheers - ToThAc (talk) 02:11, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Survey (VGChartz)

• Option 4 per above. I also strongly oppose option 1. After some digging around, I learned that most of the articles on the site are user-generated content, while the news coverage could use better sources. ToThAc (talk) 02:11, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 - there’s already a pretty solid consensus on this amongst anyone who understands how Wikipedia defines an RS, and nothing has changed. Sergecross73 msg me 03:01, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• It has been listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Sources#Unreliable sources for who knows how long. Why are we having an RFC about it? --Izno (talk) 03:07, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

  @Izno: This is about addressing the reliability of other parts of the site (articles, news, previews, etc), not necessarily their sales data. ToThAc (talk) 03:15, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

• Option 4 - there have been multiple discussions on VGChartz that show it is unreliable. What makes this discussion any different? Namcokid47 ^(Contribs) 03:17, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 Ive yet to see data sourced to VGChartz that cannot be sourced to better quality sources. --Masem (t) 03:49, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 Seems it has a reputation for non accuracy.Slatersteven (talk) 08:16, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
• Option 4 It's pretty clear that it can't be trusted. I've never seen it be viewed as reliable before, and we shouldn't start now. Nomader (talk) 21:38, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (VGChartz)

Notified: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games/Sources, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Reliability — Newslinger talk 02:52, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

@Sergecross73 and Namcokid47: In case this wasn't already clear to either of you, I'm addressing the entire VGChartz website, not necessarily their sales data (which has already been proven unreliable). ToThAc (talk) 03:24, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

I am fully aware of that, and I am still opposing it. Nearly all of the content on there is user-generated, and lots of the articles are not in the best of quality. I still consider them unreliable. Namcokid47 ^(Contribs) 03:28, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for the clarification. ToThAc (talk) 03:35, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Morning Star (British newspaper)

I'm checking WP:RS/P#Morning Star, which currently lists the MS as a "No consensus" source and cites that the New Statesman described it as "Britain's last communist newspaper". This seems rather to understate things - it's actually the house organ of the Communist Party of Britain. It's linked from their site. It lists its editorial policy as being in accord with their manifesto "Britain's Road to Socialism", and that manifesto states "On the economic, political and ideological fronts, the Morning Star as the daily paper of the labour movement and the left, with its editorial policy based on Britain’s Road to Socialism, plays an indispensable role in informing, educating and helping to mobilise the forces for progress and revolution.".

The MS itself states that "while the Morning Star’s editorial line may be guided via an annual democratic endorsement of Communist Party of Britain strategy document Britain’s Road to Socialism ... the paper is in fact a co-op owned by its readers for its readers", and describes itself as "often a lone voice reporting the stories that other media refuse to touch", which has WP:N implications.[4]

I'm not necessarily arguing for a change in its status, it's certainly possible to cite it with caution, but maybe the list entry should be updated to reflect this? Vashti (talk) 11:11, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

• Being communist to my mind is not a reason to change its status.Slatersteven (talk) 14:25, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Being the official publication of a fringe (they have 775 members, and are one of about a dozen "Communist Parties of Britain") political party isn't something that should be highlighted at WP:RS/P? Vashti (talk) 15:07, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

No, as size of membership (or even staff) is not an RS criteria. Even SPS (one person publishing their own material) can be an RS. We need more then "but communists".Slatersteven (talk) 15:13, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Hmm, fair enough. Vashti (talk) 15:17, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

• It is kind of nutty, if you Google image search their front pages: "LABOUR VOWS TO TAKE ON GLOBAL ELITE", "BLOOD ON HIS HANDS", "TAX THE RICH - DON'T ROB THE POOR", "WAR CRIMINAL NOT WELCOME", "A SHOCKING CONSPIRACY", "BANKERS' PM PLOTS NEW ATTACK". It combines hard-left WP:PARTISAN viewpoint with British tabloid-journalism, so I would not consider it reliable but I would not deprecate it either. --Pudeo (talk) 23:06, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
• From looking at their website today, all of the most inflammatory headlines appear to use quotes from individuals or groups interviewed in the article (e.g. "'Major safety failings' at prison holding Julian Assange", "XR demands BBC tells the whole truth of climate change"). It's questionable as a visual editorial style, but I'm not sure that it necessarily tells us much about the reliability of their coverage.

On another note, as it is a partisan publication, its choices of who to interview are very much grounded in its partisan perspective, and we should assess DUE accordingly. For example, when covering this week's Turkish invasion of Syria, the Communist Party of Turkey's opinion is unlikely to be the most important one for us to report. On the other hand, if we ever are in a situation where we specifically want communist (and specifically Marxist-Leninist parties') perspectives on an issue, Morning Star seems like a good resource. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 23:24, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

• Marginally better than the Daily Mail, but not much better. In all cases where the Morning Star publishes something that's both important and accurate, the same information will also be published by a better source.—S Marshall T/C 19:36, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• It should be treated the same way we treat all confirmed media-organs of political & religious organizations. And if we have no blanket rule for every one of those, it's probably high time we have one. -The Gnome (talk) 11:57, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree, we need a blanket rule, and yes I would say ban on all such bodies. What we cannot do is ban some and not others.Slatersteven (talk) 12:02, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• I read the MorningStar regularly and haven’t seen any problem with reliability. If I were using it as a source of information on Wikipedia I would generally attribute the information. If the article was an interview then I would generally use statements made by the interviewee without attribution. The MorningStar is published by is a readers' co-operative called the People's Press Printing Society. It does have an historical connection with the Communist Party (various flavours). The current relationship between paper and party seems unclear. I haven’t seen any declaration that there is an official or legal connection. The two do seem to share some personnel. Here is an excerpt from a 2015 New Statesman article (Ben Chacko is the paper's editor and Robert Griffiths is the Communist Party of Britain's general secretary):

"The People’s Press Printing Society is now run by a management committee that includes representatives of nine national trade unions, each of which contributes £20,000 to the paper’s costs and "they wouldn’t do that if it was a communist front". Griffiths maintains that the involvement of non-communists is "genuine and substantial", though he concedes that the relationship between paper and party remains strong: he was in William Rust House on the same day as I was, to attend the monthly meeting of the CPB’s political committee. Chacko is also a committee member and he was attending the meeting, though Griffiths said he wouldn’t be "taking orders"".

Burrobert (talk) 15:00, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

I would rate it as reliable. S Marshall above makes the point, "where the Morning Star publishes something that's both important and accurate, the same information will also be published by a better source." I generally agree. However, the value of the left-wing press is that they often provide more extensive coverage or topics that receive little attention in mainstream media. For example, the Morning Star's article on the end of the Matalan strike[5] contains information not included in the BBC article,[6] such as information about the company's original offer and that the new offer includes a £90 one-off payment for all employees and backdated pay for all staff on core shifts.

I am not worried about editorial policy or headlines since opinion pieces are rarely reliable sources for facts and headlines are never reliable sources. The Wall Street Journal for example runs lots of editorials against climate change science, and even mainstream publications publish headlines such as "Americans Are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions" (Bloomberg, August 8, 2007).

TFD (talk) 21:16, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: "The Gateway Pundit" (October)

Should The Gateway Pundit be deprecated? Or listed as generally unreliable? Or something else?

See thegatewaypundit.com  ; and for earlier thegatewaypundit.com discussion see earlier Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 256#Among low-quality sources, the most popular websites are right-wing sources; along with other previous mentions at: 256, 250, 241, and 233. X1\ (talk) 00:13, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Survey (The Gateway Pundit)

• Unacceptable as a source. It's a batshit insane far-right conspiracy blog. I don't know the difference between "depreciation" and "generally unreliable", but I support whatever ensures that this rubbish doesn't get cited here. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 00:25, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable for just about anything outside of their opinion, with in-line citations, in rare situations where their opinion is directly relevant; they're a blog with no particular reputation for fact-checking or accuracy (obviously.) That said, see my comment below - they're only being cited five times that I can see. As far as I can tell nobody is arguing that they are reliable anywhere for stuff outside that. We don't need to hold RFCs for things that are already universally-accepted; there are far too many unreliable sources in existence to enumerate them all. --Aquillion (talk) 01:25, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable for statements of fact, and opinion wouldn't/shouldn't carry much weight in most cases, but as Aquillion says, it's not exactly a frequent problem. Certainly not opposed to deprecating if there's evidence it would save a nontrivial amount of effort. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 16:55, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• In the very least unreliable. François Robere (talk) 17:34, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable for anything beyond their own opinion. Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 17:49, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable for ... anything. Given that it's a hoax/fake news site I wouldn't even use them for their own "opinion" since those could just as well be trolling. Volunteer Marek 17:51, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate this fake news website known for partisan hackery and hoax articles. This is never an acceptable source. Toa Nidhiki05 17:57, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable, do not deprecate Clearly not a reliable site. No reason to deprecate as it clearly isn't being treated as reliable. We need to stop the deprecation game even with sites like this. Springee (talk) 18:07, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Not reliable in the slightest. Depreciate – Muboshgu (talk) 18:53, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate. soibangla (talk) 19:01, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate I'm not sure this is necessary, because it seems like they are essentially already de-facto deprecated since they're a widely recognized purveyor of fake news. I don't see any problem with formalizing that classification, though. Nblund ^talk 21:19, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable and OK with deprecating - David Gerard (talk) 13:14, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate The fewer of these blatant misinformation sites we entertain, the better the whole project will be. They have a tendency toward supporting conspiracy theories, don't fact check much at all and exist as a propaganda tool. An encyclopedia should not be depending on such outlets. Simonm223 (talk) 13:50, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
• In the very least unreliable. I agree with Simonm223 and most others, deprecate is appropriate. This source is perennial as noted by various contributors, particularly highlighted by Aquillion's everywhere search. It will be useful to point novices, contrarians, etc to the Wikipedia:RSP citation of discussion if it gets a place on the table (hopefully). I don't understand Springee's "deprecation game" comment. How is it a "game"? X1\ (talk) 00:44, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
• Deprecate X1\ and Simonm223 make excellent points. The source regularly reports on conspiracy theories under the guise of news, which immediately calls into question whether any of their genuine news coverage is tainted with the desire to drive readers towards their own partisan views. Their SEO is structured so anyone looking to affirm a personal bias could easily search for say, "Badger Party planning frisbee ban", and get something resembling a WP:RS that could be injected into an article and left standing as authoritative information until another editor eventually susses it out. →‎ GS →‎ ☎ → 05:03, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
• Unreliable not "Deprecate" Deprecation is an extreme option over-used but not consistently used (leftist sources are usually spared the measure of deprecation). We have good, workable guidelines in WP:BIASED which allow editors to use their judgment with sources like the one we're talking about. Deprecation when there's no signifcant pattern of a given source being used to prop POV up in our articles is itself deprecated in WP:NOTCENSORED. --loupgarous (talk) 06:25, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Leftist sources rarely engage in conspiracy theories treated as reportage. Those that do should be deprecated too. Simonm223 (talk) 16:46, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
• I agree with Simonm223's Those that do should be deprecated too. For useful list of "Hyper-Partisan Left - Most Extreme Left", see here (collected by BullRangifer). X1\ (talk) 19:40, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• I don't see any appropriate sources on that list. Though I wouldn't call any of them extreme left so much as extreme anti-Republican with poor or non-existent standards for fact checking. Thx X1.Simonm223 (talk) 11:08, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (The Gateway Pundit)

• Is it actually being cited anywhere? A search finds only five uses in article space. Most of those should be replaced, but it's not exactly something pressing enough to require an RFC (with such a small number of cites, all of which look easy-to-replace, you can just replace them and open a discussion leading to an RFC if someone objects and you can't hash it out.) I'm not sure we need to bother with RFCs when it seems like virtually everyone agrees the source is unusable already (and are not using it.) --Aquillion (talk) 01:21, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

• I'd say the important question is not how often is it used at this very moment, but the more difficult to answer, "How often do people try to use it inappropriately and how much time is wasted discussing it?" Deprecating a source can be a huge time saver, assuming there is consensus that the source is bad enough to be worth deprecating, and there is actually time to be saved. Someguy1221 (talk) 01:36, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

• Hrm. A search for everywhere rather than just article content does turn up 86 uses (mostly talk.) Even then, though, it seems to be mostly new / inexperienced users bringing it up, and it's pretty clear that every time it comes up people are just like "no, you can't use that as a source." Most of the time they didn't seem to know WP:RS is a thing, so that conversation would still have to happen. --Aquillion (talk) 15:58, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

• There were some attempts to use it in 2016/17 before and after the election. Not so much now. It's possible these attempts could renew as we get closer to 2020. Volunteer Marek 17:53, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
• Aquillion is "Hrm" a reference to Ḥ-R-M? X1\ (talk) 00:44, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

• Deprecating a source because it might be abused in the future is political censorship. It seeks to usurp editors' judgment generally to apply the WP:BIASED guidelines because a given source might be abused - but no significant amount of such abuse is evident. Using the RFC process to censor future edits to the encyclopedia by prior restraint needs to be examined in the light of WP:NOTCENSORED. --loupgarous (talk) 06:38, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• @Vfrickey: the only prediction we have is by using past evidence, so we go by a sources' "track record", and for this one it is not good. X1\ (talk) 19:45, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Major..e.g.90%..culling of acceptable sources needed

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

I think the community should establish a committee to review all sources currently being accepted with a view of culling the acceptable sources by at least 90 %. Given the ever deteriorating quality and reliability of articles, I think Wikipedia should try to establish a niche with a reputation of only allowing the very best sourcing for its content, and CNN and FOX could be 2 of the first to go.

I do not think the status quo is going to be acceptable to the general public much longer as they are starting to see the reality of how much spin and other bias methodology has become embedded in most media. Nocturnalnow (talk) 19:11, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

If you think that Project Veritas is an acceptable source, then I think you probably need more experience evaluating sources before suggesting sweeping policy changes. GMG^talk 19:18, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

No, I have no idea if they are any good, but that's a good example to make my point that editors need a really short list of acceptable sources. Nocturnalnow (talk) 21:15, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

No, I have no idea if they are any good... and CNN and FOX could be 2 of the first to go

Then you're not qualified to offer opinions on reliable sources or on reliable-sources policy. --Calton | Talk 07:30, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Good grief, so a guy can't be a pediatrician because he can't have a baby? Ad hominem always sucks, NOT because its not nice, but because its deflective and a HUGE waste of time! Nocturnalnow (talk) 17:15, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

• The real problem is that too many editors can not distinguish NEWS journalism from OPINION journalism. The solution to that is better education of editors, not depreciation of sources. Blueboar (talk) 19:40, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
• Sure there is a proliferation and perhaps reduction in quality of newstype sources, then again unless it's something really off-piste, I think most things are OK if edited in carefully/properly, use of attribution and so on.Selfstudier (talk) 23:03, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

  Since Wikipedia has a foundation stone of "anyone can edit" we can not move toward editor education or qualification, but since we do not have a policy of "any source is acceptable", then that is the direction we can go to improve article neutrality and validity. Nocturnalnow (talk) 21:15, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

  This is AT VERY BEST a solution in search of a problem. That you tried to get CNN deprecated makes me question your motivations here. --Calton | Talk

  Good grief, so a guy can't be a pediatrician because he can't have a baby? Ad hominem always sucks, NOT because its not nice, but because its deflective and a HUGE waste of time! Nocturnalnow (talk) 17:19, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

  And in this case, the ad hominem replies (always a sign of a weak opinion) may be an indication I may be on to a good idea...the culling...as disruptive at it would be. Disruptive can be a good thing, you know. Nocturnalnow (talk) 19:31, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

  When your suggestion is based mostly or entirely on your own personal opinion (as far as I can tell), it's not quite a clear-cut ad hominem to suggest that you may lack experience in the areas in which you are opining. I don't think it is over-the-top to suggest that 500 or so edits to articles over the past several years may not be sufficient for a thoroughly informed viewpoint on what drastic measures must be immediately undertaken to avoid the inevitable wiki-apocalypse. To suggest with such bravado that we must summarily depreciate Fox and CNN at the very least shows you are not aware that these sources have been discussed dozens of times. Merely having an opinion about Wikipedia does not constitute meaningful contribution to the project, and primarily doing so usually means that opinion will be an uninformed one. GMG^talk 19:50, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

• Editors have widely endorsed both CNN (RSP entry) and Fox News (RSP entry) as generally reliable for factual news coverage, subject to the guideline on news organizations, in 27 previous discussions. It will take much, much more than a Project Veritas video to overturn the existing consensus. — Newslinger talk 19:53, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
• Groupthink:..." is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences." Not sure if the aforementioned applies, but I have not seen any "critical evaluation" of my "culling" suggestion. Nocturnalnow (talk) 00:39, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

  Wikipedia operates on consensus; this is fundamental. If consensus-building is not a process you would like to engage in, your contributions may be a better fit for some of these alternative outlets. — Newslinger talk 00:42, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

  I'm a great believer in consensus decision making. But open mindedness and outside the box thinking are not mutually exclusive to consensus decision making. But this (the non-mutual exclusivity of the above) is obvious and should not have to be even mentioned. Nocturnalnow (talk) 14:23, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

  If you want to overturn existing consensus, you'll need to convince other editors to adopt your views. The only "evidence" you've provided in your RfC on CNN is a Project Veritas video, and that didn't convince anyone. Likewise, in this discussion, you have not provided any good arguments against the existing consensus that CNN and Fox News can be used under the WP:NEWSORG guideline. If you think WP:NEWSORG should be changed, feel free to propose amendments at WT:RS. — Newslinger talk 19:13, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

What harm would there be in having a project-wide review and culling of sources?

Perhaps by looking at this in a different way we can have more constructive discussion. I think its a good idea to to have a committee review all the sources used this year, say in 1 or 2 categories, and come up with a short list of "most reliable sources". What's the problem with doing that? Nocturnalnow (talk) 14:23, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Because who gets to decide who judges?Slatersteven (talk) 14:31, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Just as an example, it could be a committee of retired Admins., voted into a "Sources Qualification Committee" on an annual basis. Nocturnalnow (talk) 19:22, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy and we do not need a "Sources Qualification Committee" to review sources. The community as a whole is doing a fine job of reviewing sources on this noticeboard without a "committee". — Newslinger talk 19:23, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

So how will this be any less of a problem then RSN? The same people will vote them in, and no doubt will do so based upon a shared opinion of what RS should be.Slatersteven (talk) 19:25, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

RSN would still operate as an ongoing maintenance operation exactly as it is currently. The SQC would be an additional advisory entity which could come up with culling procedure recommendations for the community writ large to consider. For example, there might be a recommendation to begin creating a list of all existing acceptable sources in 1 category, perhaps a category which has the most contentious content, if such can be identified. Then each source can be evaluated by 2 members of the team and given a 1-10 score if the 2 can agree upon the appropriate score. Then, after all the scoring is done, the committee can recommend culling out all the sources with a low score, say 3 or under. Nocturnalnow (talk) 00:08, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Currently, all editors are allowed to comment in any discussion on this noticeboard. Your proposal would restrict certain source-related discussions to editors who are part of a special group. How is that an improvement over the way this noticeboard operates now? — Newslinger talk 05:16, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm not suggesting changing this noticeboard at all. I'm just suggesting putting many more sources on the blacklist. How to get that done is something to be figured out, but if the community thinks its worthwhile to assess whether we have too many acceptable sources, then I'm optimistic that method of assessment can be found. Nocturnalnow (talk) 21:21, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Maintenance of the spam blacklist is already restricted to administrators, since MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist is in the MediaWiki namespace. Requests to change the spam blacklist are handled at WT:SBL, and vetted by administrators who exercise their discretion to determine whether the changes would help ensure compliance with policies and guidelines such as WP:SPAM, WP:NOTPROMO, WP:EL, WP:QS, and WP:SPS. You can request the blacklisting of new sources at WP:SBL at any time, but if the request is on reliability grounds, the spam blacklist maintainers will typically ask you to seek consensus on this noticeboard first. Administration of the spam blacklist is relatively informal, with no quantitative measurements such as the scoring system you're proposing. If you have a specific proposal related to the spam blacklist, the village pump's policy section or proposals section would be the ideal place to submit it for consideration, since the spam blacklist is not under the remit of this noticeboard. — Newslinger talk 21:58, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Not sure this will achive that, as I said this will still be decided by the same kinds of people who decide it now, admins (even ex ones) were edds at one time.Slatersteven (talk) 08:50, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Your "culling" proposal is highly unlikely to succeed, because it would – against existing consensus – fundamentally change what Wikipedia is. If you want to work on an encyclopedia where "at least 90 %" of sources that are considered reliable on Wikipedia are excluded, feel free to fork Wikipedia and start your own wiki. Wikipedia's CC BY-SA 3.0 license allows you to do this. — Newslinger talk 19:45, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

90% may be far too big a number, that number would be up to the SQC to recommend. Nocturnalnow (talk) 00:11, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• Nocturnalnow, you wrote CNN and FOX could be 2 of the first to go. There is a huge difference between the two, with CNN being nearly always right, and Fox News rarely so, so start by getting Fox News deprecated, then, in a decade or so, try to get CNN deprecated. That is how far apart they are on the "reliability" scale. I suspect you believe the "all mainstream news sources are fake news" mantra. -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:02, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

  "Suspicious" is a bad habit, and usually dead wrong. I personally think history textbooks have the most fake content, and I have not seen any increase in fake news over the past 60 years and yellow journalism goes back at least 125 years. I just think that there are way too many unscrupulous profiteers piling into the information provision space and that there will/must eventually be a severe culling. Nocturnalnow (talk) 21:39, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• @Nocturnalnow:, this isn't a case of "someone can't be a pediatrician if they can't have a baby," this is "someone citing Vani Hari to mothers of several healthy children to tell them they should drop all fish and candy from their children's diets (as though they were equally bad), going on to say that these same mothers shouldn't continue choosing what meals their children eat and yet are responsible enough to form a committee to solve world hunger."

The "harm" is that it would be beyond a huge time sink. Even if everyone agreed right now that this needed to happen, it would take months to get the committee sorted out, barring some sort of fascist takeover. Even then, there are currently 5,955,358 articles, some with [[Barack Obama|hundreds of citations], some with dozens of sources (still hundreds of citations), and all articles pretty much required to have at least two (if not three) distinct sources. Now, yes, there are a lot of stubs out there without sources, and if you want to bring them up, that's only proving my point that it is beyond delusional to even dream of the possibility of the community having anywhere near the manhours necessary to suggest this project. So, if even half of all articles have no sources (or else overlap with other articles' sources), and only 1% have hundreds (we'll say 100) and 5% dozens (we'll say 20), and the rest only three (a highly conservative guess), that'd still be 20,129,110.04 sources to review. Hell, if it's three-quarters of articles with no unique sources, only 0.1% that have just 100 sources, 1% that have 20, and the rest with just two or three (2.5), that'd still be 5,344,933.805 sources to review. Even 90% of articles with no unique sources, 0.01% with just 100 sources, 0.1% with just 20 sources, and the rest with just two, that'd still be 1,356,630.5524 sources. And we're not going to just immediately access all those sources at once, the best case scenario would be compiling a list of all citations (which would still end up with inexact duplicates).

In short, you are asking us to catalogue The Library of Babel. This should be WP:SNOW closed. Ian.thomson (talk) 22:01, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

You are likely 100% correct. I know it would be a huge challenge and task and the regulars here are much more capable than I am at figuring out how to get it done.

I am talking about something like putting a man on the moon back in 1961 when JFK set the goal. But the "how" comes 2nd., the "would this be something that you think would be good to accomplish" comes first. Nocturnalnow (talk) 14:23, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

The regulars who you admit are much more capable of figuring these things out than you have been telling you that not only can't it be done, but (especially) that it doesn't need to be done.

The process of sorting sources would require that we halt all editing to articles so that no more can be added (because the site is constantly being edited), then set up multiple bots to trawl through every article and copy everything in ref tags to a central location, convert all the different cite templates (cite web, cite book, cite news...) to just the default cite template, put the fields in the same order, drop the page number field, arrange all these citations in alphabetical order, and remove duplicate titles. (I know it'd seem like we'd be able to do the same with websites, but then all print book citations with Google Books or Internet Archive links would be scrapped). But not all citations use the cite template, those will have to be gone through manually. That's also not counting the number of citations where things are spelled slightly differently (such as including or dropping "The" from the title).

The bots would be the fast way to do it, and the site is still so big that a bot set up to go after a specific problem might not notice a specific article for years. After that, there's still a human element. We are still investigating copyright issues from four years ago. IIRC, the only reason we don't have very ancient drafts anymore is that we tag them for deletion once they reach a certain age.

At a minimum, this project would take four years -- and that'd be a miracle. A more realistic scenario is that the project would never be finished, and would probably be the death of the site. After that's finished, we could finally begin figuring out which sources would and would not be approved, and set up future rules for what would be approved. Academic publishers would be a bit easier to sort out ("Anything by Brill publishers is reliable until proven otherwise"). With the exception of the Associated Press and Reuters, pretty much all news agencies would fall into shades of grey, reliable for some coverage but not others (gosh, that's no change at all! It's like you should just be suggesting that the ban Fox and CNN as sources instead of this!). But then there's popular publishers, whose books are reliable or not on a case-by-case basis, and even some books reliable only for certain topics. This would take at least another year.

And during and after all this time, new sources that don't fit anywhere in the rules would be published. They would need to be approved by the committee. But ain't nobody got time for that, so they'd set up guidelines for what sort of sources might or might not be reliable and then a place to call into question the reliability of already cited sources -- Oh, shit, it's the system we already have, just going around both our elbows five times to get to our asses! Ian.thomson (talk) 23:10, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Indymedia

Indymedia is an anarchist-oriented open publishing platform for "citizen journalism" and crowdsourced content. They have several chapters and local sites. It has been discussed just once in 2008: Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 23#indymedia.

The site has been blocked in Germany for content that incites violence, and it is controversial in left-wing activist circles as well:

• The New York Times: Germany, in a First, Shuts Down Left-Wing Extremist Website
• Naomi Klein: Every time I log onto activist news sites like Indymedia.org, which practice "open publishing," I’m confronted with a string of Jewish conspiracy theories about 9-11 and excerpts from the Protocol of the Elders of Zion. [7]

Now, I think this would quite clearly be unreliable as WP:SELFPUBLISHED, but the source is actually very much used in article space: indymedia.org   (792 uses), indymedia.ie   (151 uses), indymedia.org.uk   (222 uses), indybay.org   (209 uses). Do you reckon that a RfC and phasing out would be warranted? --Pudeo (talk) 07:39, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes. This source should not be used per WP:SPS. Just checking some of their US sites, such as their version for Portland (portland.indymedia.org), it's all announcements of events, petitions, and advocacy. The fact that it's described as "open publishing", contributors are called "volunteers" and obvious lack of professionalism mean that there's no way this is a reliable source for almost anything. Deprecate all indymedia sites stat. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 08:59, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

I´ve come across numerous self-published sources in this noticeboard that are deemed reliable if attributed to a ´reliable´ author (source such as those published in Think tanks). I think there´s something to iron-out here. I don´t think self-published sources should meet WP:RS. Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 09:38, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Stefka Bulgaria, SPS can be reliable when the writer is an established expert in his/her field. However, indymedia is the sort of low-volume, low-quality site that is highly unlikely to attract that kind of writer. Think tanks are not usually an SPS because the think tank has editorial control over its writers, not unlike a newspaper. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 10:53, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Since there is no fact-checking, each article must be evaluated on its own merits. In practice however few if any articles published would meet rs, since reliable writers are unlikely to contribute and even if they did, the article would lack weight for inclusion of any of the facts presented. TFD (talk) 02:03, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

It is slightly more complex than that because Indymedia isn't just one organization, but a category of them (each with their own editorial board and policies); the name Indymedia is more of a "brand", like Antifa or somesuch, so the amount of (and existence of) fact-checking can differ from group to group. See here. (Certainly Indymedia journalism is a radicalway of sharing and selecting news. But it is not that much different fromestablished forms of journalism in the kind of problems, issues and editorialdiscussions it faces in the practice of everyday publishing. That said, it's reasonably clear that the vast majority of groups using the term, at least, wouldn't pass WP:RS for a variety of reasons - the converse of them being many scattered groups is that most of them individually lack reputations, even before you get to the fact that many of them just publish anything sent to them with only limited editorial control. This does mention that some have editorial boards that perform fact-checking, but, well, read for yourself: These differing interpretations of the purpose of Indymedia were further reflected incollectives’ editorial policy. Despite being based on the premise of open publishing it has been necessary at times to edit some postings. Spam is sometimes removed in order to retain newswire quality. Additionally there is an element of fact-checking that occurs for postings. This is done by the websites editorial collectives when they feel it is appropriate, but more commonly is undertaken by other participants and contributors in the form of comments posted after each newswire submission. Big yikes on the last part. A lot of the academic coverage (eg. here) strikes me as something that would be good for establishing reputation (they treat it as a usable news source), but which makes it sound unusable due to the way it interacts with our policies; that said, I would generally want to look at the reputation and policies of individual Indiemedia collectives rather than blanket-removing all of them, though with the assumption that they have a hard climb to illustrate reputation, fact-checking, and editorial controls, as well as a sufficiently well-defined editorial collective to avoid being WP:USERGENERATED (which seems like something else that varies from group to group?) I do think that they are not always a WP:SPS (at least, the academic papers listed there seem to give the editorial collectives some degree of weight), and some of them have actual editorial-board fact-checking, but there's a lot of other concerning things. --Aquillion (talk) 18:22, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• I agree with Fiamh: The following quote from the Portland Indymedia makes in clear that these sites consist of WP:UGC and this are "generally unacceptable" on Wikipedia. [8]:

Like all IMCs, Portland Indymedia hosts a website with an open publishing newswire to which anyone can post text, images, audio and video using the online publish form. Unlike a newspaper or other form of media, anyone is free to post their news and experiences (there are some exceptions, see the editorial policy. Articles posted to the site come from people in the community, and their words are never edited by IMC volunteers. The articles that are featured in the center column are taken right from the newswire, thus highlighting original content and reporting. This system empowers anyone to become the media for the purpose of sharing information and views that are blocked out or misrepresented by the corporate media; that is, to stand with the oppressed against the oppressors. - GretLomborg (talk) 04:32, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• The newswire sections are crowdsourced and inherently unreliable (WP:UGC). I recall at least one instance where an Indymedia post was the subject of a news piece published in a reliable source. For that narrow case, it may be useful to add the primary source as a supplement to the secondary source. Some of its editorial sections are usually a curated digest of the newswire, so I wouldn't bet on its reliability either. I guess some Indymedia sites might be reliable in narrow contexts, such as determining the exact date and location of a protest. --MarioGom (talk) 12:12, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

theconversation.com

Is The Conversation (website) considered a reliable source? Eg: [9]. I searched in WP:RS/P and the archives here but did not find anything relevant. Thank you in advance --Signimu (talk) 18:44, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

It's definitely being treated as reliable across the over 2,000 articles where it's being used.

The article you give as an example might be considered reliable simply because of the expertise of the author, Melissa Wdowik.

It would be helpful to find examples of how other publishers use it, but it seems fine at a glance. --Ronz (talk) 21:27, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much! --Signimu (talk) 05:15, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• Generally reliable for news and uncontroversial topics. The Conversation's content is most frequently encountered in syndicated form, since all of its articles are released under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Many reliable sources republish these articles, including Snopes (RSP entry), The Washington Post (RSP entry), Fox News (RSP entry), PBS NewsHour, the BBC (RSP entry), the Scientific American, Fast Company, and ABC News (Australia). The Conversation has a robust editorial team and is affiliated with a large number of universities. Articles are written by authors who are vetted for expertise (mostly university professors). Authors provide disclosure statements that reveal their funding sources and conflicts of interest in their articles. — Newslinger talk 07:45, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• Generally reliable as the majority of articles are written by academics who are subject-matter experts. However, this appears to be mainly an opinion source rather than one for reportage. feminist (talk) 13:47, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC: "ProPublica" (October)

Should ProPublica be listed as a generally reliable for news coverage? Or something else?

See propublica.org   and everywhere search in wp; and for earlier ProPublica.org discussion mentions see wp:RSN Archives: 132, 178, 213, 246, 251, 263, and 268. X1\ (talk) 19:39, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Updated lede sentence per feedback. X1\ (talk) 19:17, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Survey (ProPublica)

• Generally reliable in its areas of expertise Generally reliable for news coverage. X1\ (talk) 22:14, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Updated my "vote" due to a couple of comments. X1\ (talk) 00:16, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Not news coverage - umm, they can't be a RS for news because they don't DO news of the day. They don't cover what is happening with Kurds or Brexit this week, Canadian election results, the woes of Man Utd, or natural disasters and such. They do investigative pieces from a progressive POV, with a data analysis approach. ProPublica is respectably known and usually has a factual data-driven content, but they do have a bias that they're open about, and do not present a balanced picture which they also are open about. It's going to be about telling you a way to see something Wrong from a progressive view point and nothing much else. Very well done, but limited in scope and POV. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 23:58, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• umm, Markbassett, are you attempting a joke? If so, this is not the time or place. X1\ (talk) 19:12, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Generally reliable in its areas of expertise When ProPublica does analysis, their number-crunching is reliable. But before they get to crunching numbers, ProPublica designs their studies to test what is generally a partisan hypothesis. They've done good work with the New Yorker in exposing ethical abuses surrounding commercial "storefront" stem cell therapy and their work's been deemed reliable by third party commenters such as medicinal chemist Derek Lowe in his "In The Pipeline" blog. They are useful and reliable on some stories, especially on the technical arguments surrounding contentious issues such as net neutrality (where they would be a good part of a balanced survey of informed opinion on such subjects). As with any openly partisan secondary source, editors ought to review the guidance in WP:BIASED before and while citing ProPublica. --loupgarous (talk) 22:52, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion (ProPublica)

• ProPublica#Awards is rather impressive. --Ronz (talk) 21:29, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
• Context? Has this been challenged somewhere? What was it being used for? I've not seen treating PP as a source be controversial in the past. If it's been unclear, it would be helpful to link past discussions (plaintext mentions of archives doesn't do much more than a search bar would). If past threads have been clear, we can just add it to RSP. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 00:02, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• Specifically, the RfC was spawned by this comment, but I have seen other surprising comments during semi-random general browsing. I have generally thought of ProPublica as well-respected investigative journalism RS, and with impressive detail at that. But I don't generally follow them, and only recently for the first time looked at their homepage. Maybe I have only seen the best quality works, may be it is on an author by author basis? So I wanted other comments. If some consensus-ish discussion is reached here, then I can point other editors it for reference. X1\ (talk) 19:39, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yeah, that's ridiculous. The nature of ProPublica's work is the journalism itself, not the publishing. Its reporting is highly visible not because people visit its website but because publications like The New York Times pick up the stories. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 22:45, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
• It looks like their concern is WP:DUE, not WP:RS (although they're somewhat related.) There are publications whose reputation is so weighty that when they give significant attention to a subject it is almost automatically WP:DUE; then there are ones that lack that automatic weight but which still clearly pass WP:RS. Without regard to the question of which one ProPublica falls into (it's usually a much harder and more context-sensitive question to answer than whether a publication passes WP:RS), I don't think they're suggesting it's unreliable, so there's not much for WP:RSN to say. That sort of question usually goes to WP:NPOVN (and generally doesn't get an easy answer, because, again, it's tricky.) --Aquillion (talk) 23:39, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes, the concern was DUE -- whether ProPublica alone was enough WEIGHT to get an article into Presidency of Donald Trump. It was posted to the TALK within hours of going online. (I generally suggest NOT just doing a copy-paste of whatever was in your monings feed, and a 48 hour waiting period for WEIGHT and more information to show up.) Since then a couple major venues seconded it, but of circa 25 major venues that's all so far. It also has some issues of being an esoteric statistic and being phrased as a comparison to Obama rather than an absolute metric or across longer time period, but mostly it just hasn't hit DUE for consideration yet. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 23:50, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• @Rhododendrites: for the Archives;

132 = a PBS Frontline investigation, coupled with ProPublica, a journal for journalists, published by people who came from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. = i.e. among high-quality RSs.

178 = ProPublica used as an RS.

213 = News organizations using a third-party fact checking service = ProPublica listed with other high-quality RSs.

246 = Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, which is a (high-quality) non-profit, investigative journalism outfit that prouces such investivative pieces but instead/in-addition to publishing on its own niche website, offers them to its affiliated partners that have a broader reach. See ProPublica, which follows the same model at a national scale. = ProPublica listed with other high-quality RSs.

251 = from other reliable sources such as Propublica or the Guardian = ProPublica listed with other high-quality RSs.

263 = ProPublica has an expressed interest in fighting corruption "through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing." = strong journalism quality, strong RS.

268 = ProPublica used as an RS.

X1\ (talk) 19:28, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Bellingcat

Bellingcat - please can we ensure this site is not taken as a credible source on WP? This outlet is funded by The National Endowment for Democracy - a right-wing corporate think tank who essentially help the CIA and other western nations to overthrow other countries that don't allow themselves to be bullied by the WTO and IMF. Nothing less than propaganda and anyone accepting funding from them has seriously tainted any credibility they already had. Here's an e.g. from Consortium News (the outlet that broke the Watergate scandal before someone automatically assumes "they can't be credible because I've never heard of them")
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/28/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-in-venezuela/ Apeholder (talk) 00:39, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Bellingcat is generally considered reliable; its reporting on the Syrian and Yemeni wars, among other international issues, has been acclaimed around the world. Your personal opinion that its receipt of funding from NED renders Bellingcat non-credible is just that - your personal opinion. The article you linked does not mention Bellingcat at all whatsoever, so it's irrelevant for our purposes. If you have reliable sources which question Bellingcat's credibility and reporting, please present them here. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 00:49, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Consortium News was founded in 1995 (yet broke the Watergate story?), and frequently publishes fringe rubbish. A very recent RFC concluded Bellingcat was generally reliable. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 01:00, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

@Snooganssnoogans: Robert Parry (journalist) created Consortium News, obviously he didn't create this website during the Iran-Contra affair as the WWW wasn't really a thing then was it?

Other examples of Bellingcat not using due dilligence and being fake news:

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/11/30/relying-on-unreliable-syrian-sources/

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/20/mh-17-case-old-journalism-vs-new/

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/expert-criticizes-allegations-of-russian-mh17-manipulation-a-1037125.html

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/05/corruption-propaganda-weapon

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/29/guardian-escalates-its-vilification-julian-assange

And the sources Bellingcat use should be enough to at least raise doubt about their credibility. I really don't understand the arbitrary ways in which WP classes some sources as reliable and other not Apeholder (talk) 03:27, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

The criticisms published in Der Spiegel do present a significant reason for doubt, even if we are dismissing the other sources publishing criticism as being too politically expedient. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 03:47, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

@The Four Deuces: FYI Apeholder (talk) 03:52, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Robert Parry (journalist) created Consortium News, obviously he didn't create this website during the Iran-Contra affair as the WWW wasn't really a thing then was it?

Uh huh. And yet, what you actually wrote was "Consortium News (the outlet that broke the Watergate scandal before someone automatically assumes 'they can't be credible because I've never heard of them')", which bears no resemblance to your follow-up attempt at a back-pedal. Your factually wrong attempt at resume inflation -- Watergate? -- is still wrong, since Perry didn't "break" Iran-Contra, he broke some stories ABOUT Iran-Contra. --Calton | Talk 00:00, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• You may want to consult this recent and extensively discussed RfC on the reliability of Bellingcat, which was closed a month ago with the message "I am seeing a numerical as well as weighed consensus to treat the site as generally reliable and use it, preferably with attribution." I don't think that discussion needs to be reopened at this time. - GretLomborg (talk) 04:18, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Reliability in Wikipedia has a very low bar. All it means is that there is a reasonable expectation that the information presented will be factual. Most highly biased sites such as bellingcat do not fabricate information but selectively search for negative information about individuals. In this case it is probably true that a Syrian-American group donated $3,500 to the Jimmy Dore show. Their president also contributed $2,800 to RO FOR CONGRESS INC, $552.50 to ActBlue and $100 to BERNIE200 in this campaign cycle. (Nothing to accused Assad apologists Tulsi Gabbard and the Green Party.)[10] However, WP:WEIGHT presents a higher bar, since only significant facts and opinions hat have been published by reliable sources on a topic may be presented in articles. "[D]iscussion of isolated events, criticisms, or news reports about a subject may be verifiable and impartial, but still disproportionate to their overall significance to the article topic."

In order to properly address weight, I have always avoided using investigative journalism as a source. If it is noteworthy then mainstream sources will pick up on it and determine what aspects of it are noteworthy and allow the victims of their coverage to provide their side, while experts will be consulted to provide their opinions. The main problem comes from right-wing media that target Democrats such as Obama and Hillary Clinton. Mostly these stories bounce around the right-wing echo chamber but occasionally make it into mainstream news media. It is only then that we can know the whole story, based on their reception. If we were to present stories that only Fox News had reported, then we would elevating their significance beyond what the mainstream viewed noteworthy and Wikipedia would become part of the echo chamber, rather than a neutral encyclopedia.

TFD (talk) 18:08, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Our policy on exceptional claims is an effective stabilizer for controversial reports that are accurate, but one-sided. Multiple high-quality reliable sources are required to substantiate exceptional claims, which helps ensure neutrality. — Newslinger talk 21:42, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

International Journal of Applied Sciences (IJAS)

Does this journal look reliable? ∯WBG^converse 10:38, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Winged Blades of Godric, it claims to be peer reviewed and I didn't find it on a couple lists of predatory journals. However, it's very new and I would exercise some caution until it builds up a reputation. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 10:43, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

The publisher, CSC Journals (Computer Science Journals) is on Beall's list, though. Someguy1221 (talk) 18:57, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Got a link for the version of Beall's list (which Beall is no longer updating according to some reports) you found CSC Journals on? I ask because this "list of possibly predatory journals" which uses Beall's list as a "core" only lists "Computer Science Journal", probably a predatory journal based in Pakistan. Predatory scientific publishers frequently adopt names similar to reputable scientific publishers. "Science Publishing Group", an infamously predatory publisher, is easily confusable with Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Are you sure you saw CSC Journals and not Computer Science Jouirnal on your version of Beall's list? Just curious. --loupgarous (talk) 23:30, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

This is supposed to start with Beall's original list right before he took it down. It contains "Computer Science Journals" and lists their website as cscjournals.org, which is the one this new journal belongs to. Honestly as I look it it, it does seem to have certain red flags indicative of a predatory publisher, although admittedly I cannot find anyone to directly accuse them with an explanation. But anyway, it's weird to me that their journals mostly list American and European editors, but the corporate side and founder are located in Malaysia, with absolutely no information on their website that I can find even discussing the nature of the company behind the publications. And even their oldest journal, published for over 12 years, does not seem to be listed any high quality indexes that I recognize. As far as I can tell these journals are only indexed by services that are aiming for exhaustiveness, not quality. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:38, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Litmus test for source reliability in the AmPol2 area

Litmus tests are a handy method for settling controversial issues. They have been used in chemistry, politics, and Wikipedia needs to use a good litmus test to help us determine the reliability of sources for certain topics.

• Proposition:

That we adopt a litmus test for judging source reliability in the American politics 2 area and will let the best fact checkers make the judgments, not partisan editors. RS must be our guide star. Partisan editors do not trump RS and fact checkers.

This litmus test may be modified for use beyond politics, but for now, let us focus on those political topics because extremely partisan reporting tends to affect politics more than other mundane factual matters (and we can use generally RS for such matters). We know that media bias in the United States exists and that it is now more extreme than ever. The fringes of both left- and right-wing sources distort the facts, and those sources are thus unreliable for use here.

Source bias alone is not sufficient for answering these questions, because left- and right-wing bias, when closer to the center, doesn't have to distort or ignore the facts, but when one gets further from the center, that bias begins to distort the facts, often to the point of pushing deceptive talking points, labeling lies as truth, advancing conspiracy theories, and even fake news ("alternative facts"). Such media echo chambers feed their audiences misinformation so they end up in an isolating filter bubble of deception, leaving them ignorant of the facts. Such people edit here and come across as incompetent to edit in the AmPol2 area when they propose that both CNN and Fox News should be deprecated. There is a vast difference, and fact checkers document it.

• Litmus test:

If a source regularly pawns off proven lies as truth to its audience, that makes it an unreliable source.

• Application:

Because fact checkers and RS correctly and consistently label a myriad of Donald Trump's statements as lies or unfactual, and most partisan right-wing sources consistently push those lies and unfactual statements as if they were true, then we must not use those sources for AmPol2 subjects.

This pushing of Trump's falsehoods is not a bug, but a feature, for these sources. It's not an accident. They are not fact-checking their content, and thus fail our most basic requirement for all reliable sources. They are unreliable sources and should be deprecated for use on AmPol2 subjects. Sources on the extreme left-wing which consistently push falsehoods should suffer the same fate.

The litmus test should be used as part of our RS-determination process.

• Specific application to Fox News (talk shows) and Trump's dubious relationship to truth and facts. (added later)

Some questions to ask:

Does Fox News (talk shows) ever publish a Trump statement and point out it's a lie? Do they do this consistently, so that readers get the impression that most of what he says can't be trusted (because that's the case)? Or do Trump supporters find support for their delusional beliefs by reading content at Fox News? -- BullRangifer (talk) 16:29, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Meet the fact checkers

Fact checkers should factor heavily into how we rate sources for factual accuracy. They are the gold standard, so use them often.

• Washington Post fact checker team led by Glenn Kessler
• Poynter Institute

• Poynter International Fact Checking Network

• PolitiFact - website

• Holan, Angie Drobnic (February 12, 2018). "The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter: How we fact-check". PolitiFact. Retrieved October 20, 2018.

• FactCheck.org - website
• Snopes.com - website

Sources which should be deprecated for AmPol2 subjects

All the sources listed here are unreliable for the AmPol2 area. Some are just too biased, and most fail the litmus test and should be deprecated for that reason. Deprecations should be done on a case-by-case basis. The proposal is for the wording and use of the litmus test, not for deprecations here and now.

No deprecations right now
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Hyper-Partisan Left - Most Extreme Left Forward Progressives Bipartisan Report Occupy Democrats Daily Kos AlterNet Palmer Report Patribotics Hyper-Partisan Right - Most Extreme Right Fox News New York Post Daily Mail The Federalist OAN Drudge Report Breitbart News The Epoch Times‎ Newsmax RedState InfoWars The Daily Wire The Daily Caller Conservative Tribune Townhall Hyper-Partisan Right - Most Extreme Right (cont.) TheBlaze World Truth TV WorldNetDaily (WND) (birther central) The Gateway Pundit LifeZette The American Spectator Real News Update (Trump TV) Australian National Review Political Insider Liberty Headlines Your Newswire The Duran Russian disinformation RT Sputnik Zero Hedge

BullRangifer (talk) 19:11, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Litmus test discussion

• I think this might be worthy of an essay, but I think we should be addressing these sources on a case-by-case basis. Some of the sources listed here are already deprecated, others (like Fox News) are reliable for some purposes and not for others. More importantly: news sources in general aren't necessarily all that great for writing encyclopedia entries. Nblund ^talk 19:31, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• I totally agree that deprecations should be done on a case-by-case basis. The proposal is for the wording and of the litmus test. Any improvements would be welcome. -- BullRangifer (talk) 19:39, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• I agree with Nblund, and will add that few, if any, news sources would pass a litmus test because of RECENTISM, propagandizing by pundits, and errors and omissions. We already have PAGs that address how we should be using RS - see RECENTISM, NOTNEWS, and NEWSORG for starters. Then we have BLP, NPOV, OR and V. RS become a concern when editors don't strictly adhere to our basic core content policies and guidelines for news sources. We are not obligated to include everything the news publishes within days or even weeks of it being published. There's an obvious reason for the rush - the 2020 election - and I, like many others, oppose WP being used in that manner. Why not wait until a "hot-off-the-press" article is proven/disproven? WP content should have lasting encyclopedic significance, and not serve as an archive for news/pundit articles. Just sayin'....^Atsme _Talk 📧 20:11, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• I like the idea, even if compromises need to be made to get wide consensus. It would be useful to identify which sources would be impacted. --Ronz (talk) 21:26, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
• I would oppose a litmus test. Sources always need to be evaluated in context, and litmus tests don’t take context into account. Blueboar (talk) 21:41, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• Blueboar, yes, no disagreement about context, but many sources do "regularly pawn off proven lies as truth" in the context of AmPol2 subjects. We shouldn't have to constantly deal with newbies, drive-by editors, and editors who lack competence (I gave a very recent CNN/Fox incompetence example from a very experienced editor) who try to use these unreliable sources within the AmPol2 subject area. We should be able to point to the deprecation and quickly end the discussion. We already do that with many deprecated sources, but there are some sources that consistently "pawn off proven lies as truth" which are not deprecated for this topic area. Fox News "regularly pawns off proven lies as truth", and yet we don't deprecate it, even though fact checkers rate Fox News dead last for reliability. Defending such lies is their normal practice. On the rare occasions when it isn't pushing and defending Trump's lies, it's Shep Smith (no longer at Fox), Chris Wallace, or Neil Cavuto who dare to challenge all the other pundits at Fox and tell the truth. (Napolitano occasionally does that.) All the rest push and defend these lies, rendering Fox generally unreliable. Either we deprecate it, or we state clearly that it should be used with caution in this topic area, IOW generally only use it when it is those reporters who are telling the truth. Can we do that? The litmus test is pretty obviously useful. -- BullRangifer (talk) 22:25, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• This is an interesting proposal. I agree that reliable fact-checkers like the ones you listed should play a role in how editors evaluate source reliability, since they are a type of reliable source and should be taken into account under the "usage by other sources" guideline. However, since there are not that many fact-checkers, I don't think fact-checkers alone will provide the coverage we need to comprehensively determine whether a source is (un)reliable. Specifically, I don't think articles examined in fact checks form a representative sample of all articles published by a source – fact-checked articles tend to be more controversial. (Likewise, the number of times a source is discussed on this noticeboard is an indicator of how controversial it is, but not a strong indicator of how accurate it is. General reliability is determined by evaluating a source in its entirety, and is subject to a long list of context-related exceptions.) — Newslinger talk 22:56, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• The issue isn't so much about fact checkers, but about proven lies which are then pushed as truth on a consistent and daily basis by certain sources. In our current AmPol2 environment, these sources are known to be pro-Trump, and the only way to be pro-Trump when dealing with his falsehoods is to deny he said them, ignore them, or push them as truth. Fox News and other right-wing sources do this as a rule, not an exception. Here's where the litmus test comes into play. If we keep catching a source pushing lies, then they should be deprecated. They are not fact-checking their own reporting. -- BullRangifer (talk) 00:19, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
  • We already deprecate sources for publishing false or fabricated information, but whether a source meets the threshold for deprecation is a community decision. Based on past discussions and RfCs, Fox News (RSP entry) doesn't have anything close to the required amount of community support for deprecation, resulting in multiple aborted RfCs. In fact, no RfC on Fox News has survived the 30-day period on this noticeboard since the 2010 one, which concluded that Fox News is generally reliable under WP:NEWSORG. If you don't think this is the correct designation for Fox News, perhaps you could work with François Robere to craft a new RfC at User:François Robere/sandbox/Fox News that is phrased agreeably enough to last 30 days on this noticeboard. Ultimately, a re-evaluation of Fox News requires consensus from the community. Fact-checkers can inform the community's opinion, but they don't replace it. — Newslinger talk 00:36, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Newslinger, I am more concerned about the misinformation, conspiracy theories, anonymous sources, false reports by foreign agents and so on that a variety of MSM sources have been publishing over the past 2 years, not just FOXNews. The Trump-Russia collusion (conspiracy theory) was debunked by Mueller's 2 year investigation, and to say otherwise is wishful thinking or speculation at best. If we are going to evaluate FOXNews, then the same should apply to the NYTimes, WaPo, and others who perpetuated the collusion theory. Granted, several prime time pundits on FOX rejected the collusion theory, but they aren't news anchors or journalists. This proposal is a side door to noncompliance with OR. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 01:21, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Atsme, "conspiracy" was not proven, but the Mueller Report contains numerous examples of collusion/cooperation with an enemy power, all lied about by the Trump campaign. Over a hundred secret meetings between Trump people and Russian assets. It is not a conspiracy theory. Fox News pushes that "conspiracy theory" angle, which is an example of them pushing falsehoods. -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:30, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• ​For the record, I think it's highly unlikely that there is consensus for any of the sources you mentioned – Fox News, The New York Times (RSP entry), and The Washington Post (RSP entry) – to be reclassified as anything other than generally reliable. But, I don't speak for the community at large. For any editor who seeks to challenge existing consensus, my message has been consistent: the community needs to show consensus for the proposed changes, and consensus is gauged through discussion. The past noticeboard discussions on these sources speak for themselves, and in the absence of new revelations that significantly impair the sources' reputations for fact-checking and accuracy, these sources will almost certainly still be considered generally reliable under WP:NEWSORG. — Newslinger talk 02:03, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Newslinger, that's a pretty sad situation, of which have been acutely aware. One would think that this new angle (pushing of lies on a daily basis and failure to fact check) would be enough to change consensus, but I fear that we have far too many editors here who believe those lies (no need to look far for examples) to be able to get the desired result. The opinions of partisan editors still trump RS and fact checkers here. Is there any hope for Wikipedia? -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:27, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
  • In my opinion, the editor base of the English Wikipedia is diverse enough for any partisanship among individual editors to be cancelled out as editing disputes are resolved through consensus. Depending on how popular an article is, some articles will take longer than others to become neutral, but with enough attention, all articles will eventually meet all of our core content policies.

    Reliability is not the only standard for inclusion – if a source that is considered reliable publishes incorrect information, its claims can be countered by other reliable sources (including fact-checkers) and presented in a way that assigns due weight to each position. If the source publishes a specious superminority position that is not corroborated by other reliable sources, it can be completely excluded from the article under editorial discretion (and in many cases, under our policy on exceptional claims).

    If a source is unreliable enough, the community will reach a breaking point (e.g. the 2017 Daily Mail RfC) and reclassify the source to save time on repetitive discussions. I hope that Fox News never becomes unreliable enough to reach that point, since it is beneficial for editors to have as many usable sources available as possible. But if it does get to that point, go ahead and submit an RfC – and that applies to any source. — Newslinger talk 02:03, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• We have just been through a case where Glenn Kessler wrote a falsehood about The Daily Caller, then made a non-apologetic correction (which snopes.com has still not done. The falsehood was in Wikipedia's Daily Caller page for a short while without the correction. I think that shows not just how the proposed fact checkers can be unreliable, but also that they get more trust than they deserve. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 23:54, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

  Is there something in Snopes's "Did U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar Say ‘Our Country Should Be More Fearful of White Men’?" that should be corrected? The statements

The edited video resurfaced on July 24, 2019, when a writer for the right-leaning Daily Caller News Foundation posted a clip of the interview from the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), to her Twitter page. That tweet was then picked up and given legs by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who retweeted with the comment, “I am sure the media will now hound every Democrat to denounce this statement as racist. Right?”

appear to be a correct description of Molly Prince's original tweet and Marco Rubio's retweet. The Snopes fact check does not attribute the clip to The Daily Caller or the Daily Caller News Foundation. — Newslinger talk 00:10, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• The story is correct. It was just mistakenly attributed to a Daily Caller contributor, so it was a cse of misattribution. Yes, that was an error, but a rare one. -- BullRangifer (talk) 00:13, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
  • The Washington Post did make an error here, which they corrected, but I don't see any errors from Snopes in their fact check. — Newslinger talk 00:19, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Agreed. It's not about never making errors, but about making them rarely and correcting them, all versus making errors as a deliberate method of operation and not correcting them. Then falsehoods are a feature, and not a bug. -- BullRangifer (talk) 00:21, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

The 2019-07-24 Twitter post in question was identified as by Molly Prince "reporter@realDailyWire". As far as I can tell the last Daily Caller article by Molly Prince was 2019-07-12. More recent articles are by Molly Prince at Daily Wire. As for assertions about rarity, even if there was a way to evaluate that, it wouldn't matter because WP:RSCONTEXT says we have to look, not believe assertions about generalities. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 01:57, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

On July 26, 2019, the day that the Snopes fact check was published, Molly Prince's Twitter bio was "Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns", with no mention of The Daily Caller or The Daily Wire. Combined with the fact that her profile on The Daily Caller still describes her as "a politics reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation", Snopes's description of her as "a writer for the right-leaning Daily Caller News Foundation" was reasonably accurate at the time of publication. Without an announcement from Prince, The Daily Caller, or The Daily Wire, we don't know the exact date Prince left the Daily Caller News Foundation, or if she is still with them. — Newslinger talk 02:31, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Agree, calling that a "falsehood" is quite the stretch. She indisputably was a writer for the Daily Caller (having written an article for them only two weeks before the Snopes fact check was published), and the Daily Caller still says that she "is a politics reporter at the Daily Caller". Just because she more recently wrote for someone else doesn't make Snopes' statement a "falsehood". If she had never been associated with the Daily Caller, and especially if she had instead been a left-wing writer, things would be different. But to say this is a falsehood, and further that it is one so severe as to impact their reliability, is, in my opinion, beyond the pale. At worst it is an incredibly minor error, but even that is quite debatable. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 02:53, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

We have seen that Molly Prince identifies herself exclusively as a reporter for Daily Wire, and has been writing for Daily Wire since as early as July 18, after her last known writing for Daily Caller and before the Twitter post in question. And Kessler admitted she was not a Daily Caller reporter at the time of the Twitter post. Newslinger's new thing is something that links to a Russian translation of a Twitter page that says nothing about what she worked for, so it is worth nothing. Thus Newslinger's only evidence is: a Daily Caller page. So acepting Newslinger means accepting The Daily Caller regardless what Prince and Kessler and Daily Wire say. But a simpler explanation exists: The Daily Caller didn't update the page recently. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 15:36, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

This page is the Wayback Machine's July 26 archive of Molly Prince's tweet. For archival, the Wayback Machine rotates between servers in different geographic areas. Frequently, an archival is performed by a server in an area for which Twitter defaults to non-English pages; for these archivals, Twitter's interface is in the non-English language, but the content of the page (including the user's bio and tweets) are in the language they were originally posted, completely unchanged.

However, the July 26 archive of Prince's tweet that I linked to is in English. On a desktop or laptop computer, you can see Prince's bio, "Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns", on the left side of the page under the transparent gray overlay; the bio does not mention The Daily Caller or The Daily Wire. According to the archives, Prince changed her Twitter bio to "Reporter at @realDailyWire" some time between August 2 and August 8, well after Snopes published their July 26 fact check.

It is The Daily Caller's responsibility to identify their own staff and Molly Prince's responsibility to identify herself. If they can't do that properly, it's a stretch to shift the blame to Snopes. I agree with AmbivalentUnequivocality: "At worst it is an incredibly minor error, but even that is quite debatable." — Newslinger talk 19:38, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Blame whom you like, snopes was wrong and so were you. I regret having to spend so much time establishing something that was so clear from the start, and will spend no more time on this thread. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 20:01, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

But they weren't wrong. Her writing for someone else later does not change the past, or negate her previous work. Without some sort of official statement of separation, there is no reason she cannot be considered a contributor to both publications other than your opinion and assumptions. They are not mutually exclusive. No reasonable person would say "She is only a writer for them in the moment she is published, immediately following that she is no longer a writer for them until the moment her next piece is published. Since she wrote in that publication two weeks ago, she definitely isn't a writer for them now." AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 22:26, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• It's a good start, although I feel that the absolute best sources for determining reliability are not fact-checker results on individual facts, but in-depth high-quality reporting on the source as a whole and its history. That sort of coverage can put individual controversies into a larger context that establishes the source's entire reputation, as well as establishing if these issues are the result of systemic problems (eg. management that prioritizes advancing a policy goal over fact-checking or accuracy.) --Aquillion (talk) 07:15, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Mmmmm, a newspaper as a fact checker? Sorry but we have to be 100% sure any fact checker has no bias.Slatersteven (talk) 08:46, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Fact checkers are usually employed as a distinct team within a newspaper, with the sole purpose (until today, anyway) of verifying reportage prior to publication. They do not write pieces, let alone opinion ones. François Robere (talk) 18:45, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• I agree with Newslinger and others who support our current PAGs and how we treat RS, which appears to be the prevailing view here. If wider community input is required, close this discussion and open an RfC at VP. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 10:04, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• I don't like this idea. Who is watching the watchers? They aren't perfect either and it can be problematic when they get into the gray area of fact checking less black and white claims. There is also a concern regarding bias based on outside articles [[11]], [[12]], [[13]],[[14]]. The fact check sites are useful but like so many things, especially in politics we are rarely dealing with black and white issues and which shade of gray you wish to view often depends personal views/interpretations. So beyond that, where does this lead? Would we have just a list of "acceptable" sources? What happens if a new source comes on line? Would it be off limits until blessed? What if a story by a source that isn't blessed gets a lot of traction and is seen as both influential and reliable? Really, I'm not sure what this proposal would solve. Yes, many of the political articles are poorly written but I think that has more to do with issues with failing to summarize and writing as if we are trying to persuade in the present vs telling people in the future what happened in the past. Springee (talk) 15:09, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Who's watching us? If you dismiss fact checkers' as un-authoritative, then you're just passing up the responsibility to us. Who says we're better equipped to judge statements then expert investigators? François Robere (talk) 18:52, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• The problem isn't with lack of data or with the ability to deprecate sources, it's with Wikipedians' willingness to admit some sources are worse then others. For example, we already have a plethora of sources on the unreliability of Fox News, including peer-reviewed studies (see here), yet some Wikipedians still insist FN is "as reliable as any other outlet". If Wikipedia can't transcend its own politics to follow RS, then by all means - outsource the decision to other RS. François Robere (talk) 18:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

My opinion... playing “gotcha” with the media is pointless. They ALL have twisted the news to fit narratives when it suits... and ALL have been criticized for it at one point or another. Not ONE is exempt. If we are going to call one out, we should call them ALL out. Declare ALL news outlets flawed. Blueboar (talk) 20:46, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

That is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. All news outlets may be flawed, but they are not equally flawed. That is like saying "Who cares if one person stole a candy bar and one person murdered a thousand people, they are both criminals and we should treat them equally". A source that makes occasional errors and quickly corrects them is substantively different than a source that constantly, and knowingly, publishes falsehoods with no corrections. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 22:31, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree with Blueboar, and will add that the days of automatically considering news sources reliable based on their past reputations for fact checking and correcting mistakes may still hold true for print but what we’re dealing with today is the internet. Not all mistakes are automatically corrected as evidenced time and Times again. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of the mistakes were made purposely. As editors, we must exercise caution, follow our PAGs and use good editorial judgment. We’re dealing with fast news, clickbait headlines, and intense online competition unlike what we had back in the day of prepping articles with editorial oversight before the story hit the daily presses. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 04:52, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

We know both you (Blueboar) and Atsme are of that opinion that all of outlets are equal, but can you actually back it with sources? I've a pageful of sources on Fox (including peer-reviewed studies, and quotes from over two dozen RS) that show that FN is unusually, and consistently biased. François Robere (talk) 22:02, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

As a former independent CNN field producer many years ago, I don't take a position that I cannot back-up with facts, so I'll start by providing a bit of educational reading material that speaks to your question: Understanding bias, Don’t Blame The Election On Fake News. Blame It On The Media., and Why The Left Can't Stand The New York Times. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 01:02, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Now you need to read Network Propaganda' by Robert Faris and Yochai Benkler. This documents in great detail the change in Fox News, specifically, but also other right-wing news sources, over the last few years. Fox News has effectively joined the right wing media bubble, it has stopped citing sources outside the bubble, and that has led to a rapid increase in bias. The right wing media bubble does not engage in normal journalistic self-correction, it responds to falsification by doubling down or airbrushing out. If Fox News was ever a reputable news source, that time has ended. The only way you can use Fox is if it's corroborated by a reliable source, in which case there's no need to cite Fox. Guy (help!) 13:41, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The Columbia Journalism Review speaks to some of the information in the source you cited, Guy, and the attempts some European countries have made in good faith in the name of democracy but end-up imposing on free speech. There is a big difference between European democracies and our US Republic, so I expect and welcome different POVs. I'm ok with letting consensus make the decisions here - and they already have, over and over again, regarding FoxNews as being generally reliable along with any other generally reliable news source per RECENTISM, NEWSORG and NOTNEWS. We cannot rely solely on the single source you cited to rule out Fox News - we need specifics, and not from a single POV. I cited more than one source because they are educational/professional and reach into what is at the core of journalism. I look forward to seeing an updated Harvard review on this topic. I oppose state-run media because I am well aware of where it leads. The internet has certainly changed the way we receive our news, and it is not always for the better. There is clearly a trend toward a more slanted liberal bias in msm, perhaps it is more evident because of Trump's antics and the negativity surrounding his candidacy and the fact that so many people don't quite understand the workings of our electoral college and that it is actually part of the checks and balances that guard our elections against a mobocracy. I want to hear all sides of an issue including views from the far left, left, liberal, center, right, far right and independents. I want to know the views of Europeans and their take on US politics. There have been instances when a particular issue seemed out of sorts from a European perspective but was legal and perfectly acceptable in the US under our Bill of Rights. It's a balancing act and requires strict adherence to NPOV. It also exemplifies the need to stick to the facts and avoid speculation. Of course there will be partisan opposition to Fox but there's a reason for their high ratings vs the ratings of other cable news networks. We don't have to like it, and I'm sure the opposition to Fox can come up with plenty of reasons to discredit their ratings, but we should at least take it into consideration - the same way we do polling. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 16:50, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The question of how society should fix is it independent of the question of whether (and why) sources in the right wing media bubble are unreliable. The evidence is very clear: Fox was a heavily-right-leaning source, and in recent years has effectively joined the bubble sources that weight "truth" by ideology not factual accuracy. Guy (help!) 18:31, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

@Atsme and Blueboar: I'm not asking for intros, I'm asking for something concrete, like Network Propaganda - the book Guy cites. Do you have something like that that makes a reasoned evaluation of how and why American media is "all equal", or not? François Robere (talk) 19:05, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Reboot to specifically address Fox News (talk shows)

It would have saved a lot of confusion above if I had been more specific and referred to Fox News (talk shows) as discussed at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources. Sorry about that.

The specific news department does occasionally disagree with the talk show hosts and tell the truth. Unfortunately, some editors believe the talk show hosts and disbelieve the news department when the news department corrects them, and then those editors defend Fox News as a whole, as evidenced by their repetition and defense of the lies told by Trump which Fox News defends and pushes.

We need to completely deprecate the talk shows. THAT is what I want to see happen. Can anyone here seriously disagree that Hannity, Ingraham, Tucker, Beck, Levin, Dobbs, et al, never debunk Trump's lies, but push them as a rule, not as an exception? (If a specific talk show consistently tells the truth, we can make an exception for them.) -- BullRangifer (talk) 16:41, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I've been thinking about a different but related suggestion. Too often we are dealing with sources that blend news and commentary. Some sources kindly say "this is an OpEd" while others, are far less clear where they are simply reporting the facts vs where they are offering interpretations. Many of the sources that are considered to be moderate to far left or right are there not because they disagree with the basic facts but based on what they say the facts mean. The talk shows are largely opinion based commentary but are given a handy "OpEd" label. The same is true of many parts of stories from sources like The Huffington Post, Mother Jones and etc. Perhaps if we just acknowledge that the lines aren't clearly black and white we could start to treat the sources (from left to right) as commentary rather than fact more often and we could avoid some of the debates. Springee (talk) 17:48, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

We deal with opinions by attributing them, but when they are counterfactual, we give them less weight, often to the point of ignoring them. If those lies and conspiracy theories become notable, then we cover them. Sources that have a habit of repeating lies or treating them as facts should be deprecated because they are obviously not "reliable" in even the most basic sense. We do not use unreliable sources. Even lies must be sourced to RS.

Most of Fox News talking heads are engaging in disinformation, as Trump generally does. He has repeated some falsehoods so many times that he has effectively engaged in disinformation. Sources which do the same should be treated like we treat him. We do not cite Trump for facts for the following reason: "The president is possibly the single most unreliable source for any claim of fact ever to grace the pages of WP." -- MPants 04:57, 2 October 2018 (UTC) I couldn't have said it better, and editors who believe RS agree with those immortal words by MPants. -- BullRangifer (talk) 21:41, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Which all takes me back to the idea of why dont we just treat all news media as fundamentally not reliable for any breaking news story.Slatersteven (talk) 17:51, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

The lesser reliability of breaking news stories is addressed at WP:RSBREAKING. I think it's unlikely for there to be consensus on a measurable definition of "breaking news" (e.g. number of days since the event). The {{Current}} template informs readers that "Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable", and should be added to affected articles. — Newslinger talk 18:26, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Agreed. We tend to wait a few days for things to settle down. -- BullRangifer (talk) 21:45, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Agreed. François Robere (talk) 22:58, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Waiting a few days really isn't enough time for validation or verification of accuracy in subjective, politically motivated news reports. Investigations continue in the Russia conspiracy theory in an effort to determine exactly what led to the Mueller investigation and what role the Trump-Russia dossier played in the grand scheme. The only conclusion to date is that the Mueller investigation did not confirm what the Democrat's theorized about Trump-Russia collusion. Oh, and I linked to Rasmussen's "political commentary" because of what was suggested above. Non-broadcast sites appear to be more upfront about marking their op-eds, political commentary, etc. although a few still falsely present political commentary as news. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 02:00, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

"Investigations continue in the Russia conspiracy theory in an effort to determine exactly what led to the Mueller investigation and what role the Trump-Russia dossier played in the grand scheme." ???

Those investigations are part of a cover-up and distraction of the proven role of Russia in the election. It was Russia, not Ukraine, which interfered in the election. The Dossier's role is also well-known. We also know very clearly "what led to the Mueller investigation". The Dossier came after the Crossfire Hurricane investigation had started. Already in 2015, the CIA was receiving evidence of wrongdoing by Trump campaign people and other associates, but it wasn't until Papadopoulos role was told by the Australians that they could start the investigation. THAT is what led to the Russian investigation, which was subsumed into the Mueller investigation. Failure to believe this narrative is a failure to believe what RS tell us (read our articles and believe them!!) and, instead, believing what unreliable sources say. That is a serious deficiency, to put it mildly. There is a term for that here, but my sanction forbids me from saying it. Others may say it.

Current investigations are just part of the Trump/Russian attempts to smear the Dossier, and those who still consider this all a "Russia conspiracy theory" are refusing to accept what RS have told us in their crystal ball hope that future cover-up attempts will succeed in rewriting history and will whitewash Trump and his administration of their collusion with Russia. They won't accept the fact that the Russian election interference happened with Trump's full cooperation and desire, and that is not a "conspiracy theory".

Fortunately, we have honest public servants (some Trump appointees) who dare to tell the truth, and now Trump's false Ukrainian corruption conspiracy theory is being exposed by the honest people who were in the middle of it. The testimony today was damning. -- BullRangifer (talk) 05:47, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

BullRangifer, I don't think there is anything we know "clearly" at this point in time. It is still under investigation. I think The Nation laid out the Mueller report clearly - they refer to the Trump-Russia collusion allegations as a "conspiracy theory" - we simply say what RS say: "As a result, Mueller’s report provides the opposite of what Russiagate promoters led their audiences to expect: Rather than detailing a sinister collusion plot with Russia, it presents what amounts to an extended indictment of the conspiracy theory itself." As for the behind-closed-doors impeachment inquisition inquiry, it lacks transparency and credibility because of the partisanship behind it. The reporting by the same RS that pushed the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory proved nothing, much the same way nothing has been proven about the inquisition inquiry. You even criticized the NYTimes for sloppy reporting in the recent past. I'm of the mind that we should continue exercising caution and more closely adhere to WP:RECENTISM in an effort to avoid POV speculation. It will all come out in the wash. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 15:43, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Atsme, I find your comment profoundly concerning. We absolutely do know some things. The Mueller report found evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (i.e. offers the campaign "welcomed" and in some cases reciprocated, including providing internal polling data to Russians) and documented several instances of obstruction of justice, including all three elements of obstruction. Mueller confirmed this to the House during his own testimony. The "oranges" investigation is blatantly pretextual and is founded on the "deep state" conspiracy theory, its bastard child "spygate", and latterly the false claim that Joseph Mifsud was a deep state asset rather than a Russian one. If you genuinely believe the Fox News view of the "oranges" of the Mueller investigation then I have to question your competence to opine on sourcing in the area of politics. The claims have been investigated by the Senate and the Inspector-General and found to be bullshit: the FBI investigation started because Australia reported Papadopoulos' drunken ramblings to their Ambassador. We can be reasonably confident from current reporting that MI6 also reported suspicious links between Russia and Trump. It is not a surprise that this wasn't well handled, there has never been a situation before where a neck-and-neck candidate in a presidential race has suddenly shown evidence of being an asset of a hostile foreign power. Trump's campaign manager was an unregistered foreign agent. His National Security adviser was an unregistered foreign agent. Rick Gates was also acting on behalf of a foreign power. As was Sam Patten. Have you not read the articles on Papadopoulos, Flynn, Manafort, Gates, Cohen, Kilimnik, the IRA? And of course Butina and Giuliani and Parnas and Fruman and Pecker and Stone and the rest? Even if Trump were innocent, the profound shadiness of his inner circle would be ample grounds for suspicion.

The Nation calls the Trump/Russia thing a "conspiracy theory". No reality-based source does. Mueller documented approaches to the Trump campaign from the GRU that were welcomed. It documents some responses. It shows that at no point did the campaign do what it should have done (and was required to do by law), which is to contact the FBI. The fact that Russia interfered with the US election is reliably established. With the exception of a fatuous "report" by Devin Nunes, every single investigation has backed that up. Mueller, the Senate, the intelligence community, the Pentagon, the House once not under Tea Party control, the DoJ, Jim Mattis, Mike Pompeo at State, and of course multiple foreign intelligence services including MI6. Nobody disputes this other than Team Trump.

The objective facts about the Steele dossier are: Christopher Steele was a long-time British intelligence operative, he ran the MI6 Russia desk from 2006-2009, and is respected by both British and US intelligence. His report was originally commissioned as opposition research by Republicans, then taken up by Democrats after Republicans dropped the contract. It's likely Steele sold it to the Dems because he saw that it contained some bad facts for Trump. The FBI used it in a cautious and appropriate way: their FISA warrant applications contained extensive footnotes informing the court of the nature of the report and its funding sources. The FISA warrants were not based solely on Steele. The FBI investigation into the Trump campaign was not started by the Steele dossier, it was prompted by reports from Australian and likely also British intelligence of unusual contacts between Papdopoulos and the Russians (and possibly other contacts). The fixation on Steele has worked well for the right, and they are repeating it again now with the "whistleblower", but in the real world this is exactly the same as a gang of bank robbers complaining that the person who reported overhearing them plotting worked for the bank or the police. Almost all FISA warrants are approved, and the FBI can investigate any report they deem credible. Pointing at the "oranges" to draw attention away form the extremely damning facts elucidated by the resulting investigation is a political gambit, and any competent Wikipedian should recognise it as such because the facts are by now so well known. Unless you only read right-wing media. But right-wing media are disconnected form the reality-based media these days (cf. Network Propaganda), and it is a massive problem if an editor lives in that bubble.

Trump (rightly) believes that the fact Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the fact Mueller discovered evidence of collusion and multiple counts of obstruction of justice, undermines the legitimacy of his presidency. Trump probably realises that he did indeed lose the popular vote by the largest margin of any elected president since the modern two-party system began, and that his electoral college victory depended on a total of 77,000 votes in three states that were heavily targeted by Russian social media influence campaigns using data stolen by Cambridge Analytica and internal polling provided to him by Manafort. Moscow Mitch certainly knows, and that's presumably why he is determined not to pass legislation to protect the 2020 election.

The Barr investigation is a terrifying abuse of executive power which would, on its own, have led to impeachment of any Democratic president who tried to pull a stunt like that. Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch talked for a couple of minutes on the tarmac at an airport and the conservative media completely lost its shit, Trump has sent his attorney general to travel the world to pressure foreign allies into supporting a revisionist history to support his own reputation, and to pursue his political enemies. Guy (help!) 16:22, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Edit conflict with JzG.

User:Atsme, so you continue to refuse to believe the RS we use in our articles, and instead are pushing Trump's counter-narrative/conspiracy theories?

Atsme, we DO know "what led to the Mueller investigation".

1. It started when the intelligence agencies from eight European allies began to record very troubling conversations between Trump assets and Russian assets as they planned how to disrupt the election. They were just performing their routine surveillance of known Russian spies, and suddenly lots of Trump people were recorded talking to them and scheming. Those secret meetings were myriad, held all over Europe, and kept very secret. The Trump campaign has denied and lied about all of them. That's classic conspiratorial behavior.
2. Those eight agencies started to report their findings to the CIA and FBI in 2015. (Even further back, in 2013 Trump was already discussing his plans with Russians, not Americans, to run for president in 2016, and we have evidence that already then the Russians told him very publicly (Facebook and Twitter) that they would support his candidacy. The illegal and unpatriotic plans to disrupt our democratic elections were in the works for a long time before 2016.)
3. As this information from the secret meetings accumulated, the CIA and FBI were slow to respond. The CIA is not allowed to surveil Americans, and the FBI needed more proof. They were waiting for conclusive proof that these people were not acting on their own, but were informing the Trump campaign.
4. That proof finally came when the Australian government reported about the Papadopoulos meetings which proved that he was reporting back to the campaign, acting on their behalf, and that the campaign had insider prior knowledge about the Russian hacking of the DNC and about how the Russians got the stolen mails to WikiLeaks and planned to release them at the most destructive time during the election. 5-6 days later the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the ongoing and widespread Russian interference.
5. Much later the Dossier added some information, but the FBI only believed it because they had other sources which could independently confirm what the Dossier's sources reported.
6. Later that Crossfire Hurricane investigation was subsumed into the Mueller investigation.
7. Even Repuplican leaders and the Nunes Report confirm this narrative.
8. THIS is the narrative which RS tell us.
9. THIS is what we write in our articles.

Atsme, what part of this narrative do you not believe? (Feel free to use the numbers.) How can you edit here while holding such counter-RS views? Why do you keep pushing such views here? I thought you were sanctioned and warned about this path you're on. Pushing this narrative seems to violate your sanction. -- BullRangifer (talk) 16:37, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

BR, what you know is what the media published, and that's all we're supposed to know, but keep in mind, we must adhere to NPOV when making our selections in whatever RS we cite. As for my concern about RECENTISM, John Durham is currently investigating the investigators regarding the Trump-Russia investigation, and it's not just Fox News reporting it. When Durham's report is finalized, that is when we will know what really happened, but RSN is not the forum for us to discuss politics. I'll repeat once more that I will honor whatever consensus says about the reliability of Fox News, so call your RfC. Happy editing! ^Atsme _Talk 📧 17:46, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

NPOV is not the average between reality-based sources and bullshit. You say "what the media published", but that's not where we get these facts from, or at least not entirely. There are court transcripts and findings of fact, reports by US and other intelligence agencies, by the Senate and House committees, inspectors-general, and the Mueller report itself. The only holdouts are Team Trump, including Fox News. And Fox are pushing the manufactured counter-narrative (bluntly, propaganda) on most of this. That's a big reason why Fox is not reliable for anything other than ABOUTSELF at this point. I refer you again to Network Propaganda, an excellent book recommended to me by Mike Godwin. Guy (help!) 18:42, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

what you know is what the media published And what we know about the universe is what scientists publish. That's how it works. We summarize what was published, not argue with it and not conjecture on what might be published at some point in the future. Guy and BR's comments follow that principle; yours very much doesn't. And no, the Washington Examiner is not an RS. François Robere (talk) 19:31, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Atsme, the Washington Examiner is not a RS, but a purveyor and backer of the counterfactual narrative pushed by Trump, his allies, and Russia, the enemy of YOUR country, a narrative which you believe and push here. They are lying to you. It's not right that you read them or cite them. We should only use and support what RS say.

I have described the sequence of events which "led to the Mueller investigation" (your words). What part of that narrative don't you believe and why? You are evading. I suspect it's because you don't believe what RS say because you base your beliefs on what unreliable sources say, and you aren't allowed to use them in articles here. You shouldn't use them on talk pages either. If I have misrepresented things you've said, then please explain. I can only go by what you write and the sources you do use, and they are invariably unreliable sources.

The ideas you voice are only found in fringe and unreliable sources, and now you're defending them right here, on the "Reliable notices noticeboard", of all places, so this conversation is extremely relevant to discuss HERE. I fear you are being misled. We love you as a person, but we are concerned for your well-being and your influence as an editor. This is sad. Please clarify. Your defense of unreliable sources at the "Reliable sources Noticeboard" is sad and alarming.

Above, Guy pointed out the problematic nature of your "opine[ing] on sourcing in the area of politics", and that problem needs to be dealt with. It's a violation of your sanction. This must stop. -- BullRangifer (talk) 19:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

I mean Washington Examiner is a RS for certain things. Also the three of you really need to chill out. PackMecEng (talk) 00:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

PackMecEng, "There is no consensus on the reliability of the Washington Examiner, but there is consensus that it should not be used to substantiate exceptional claims. Almost all editors consider the Washington Examiner a partisan source and believe that statements from this publication should be attributed." It's a tabloid owned by a cult, handle with extreme caution, and the statements referenced fall solidly with the area of unreliability. As to chill out, well, maybe. Someone we think is nice, is seriously advocating that Fox News is a RS based on references to right-wing propaganda. That's a concern, especially given her history of advocating John Birch Society fringe nonsense at G. Edward Griffin. Network Propaganda is a very detailed analysis of the influences on Fox content, that shows why our historical acceptance of Fox should not persist. As a data point, Shep Smith has left. He was the only reliably mainstream voice on Fox. Mainstream is not the opposite of conservative, mainstream is the group of sources that collectively share a commitment to empirical reality. Many of us who love America are terrified of the current situation, where the President freely mixes fact and fiction and a substantial proportion of the US population, according to the media they are tracked as watching and sharing, have minimal exposure to factual coverage of important issues of the day, and extensive exposure to distorted or outright false versions. Easily a third of the US is being told that literal conspiracy theories are the true explanation, when every form of evidence usually considered reliable (intelligence agencies, IG reports, court findings of fact etc) says the opposite. That cannot be allowed to creep into Wikipedia content. Guy (help!) 12:37, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

In these post-truth Trumpian political times, "fringe editors" often have a strong Trump bias and point of view because they adopt Trump's open animosity toward RS, and believe his untruths and the fake news stories circulated in his support and attacking those he does not like, especially Obama and Clinton.

These editors consider the RS we use to be fake news. Their bias and point of view are directly opposed to our RS guideline. Because these editors are so at odds with RS, which are the basis of all editing here, they should be monitored carefully. They cannot be trusted. They often create problems and disruption because they imbibe these unreliable sources. Note that not all Trump voters are like this, but the hardcore supporters are, and a few of them edit here. -- BullRangifer (talk) 14:23, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes that is what RSP says no consensus, which is not the same as not a RS. This is not something that is being used in an article either so again no idea why you think reliability in general is an issue here. Finally for both of you, this is not a forum for your personal views. PackMecEng (talk) 15:26, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

I will agree that there are a lot of new editors or IPs that come in with "left-leaning sources are bad" and challenge established RSes, which we're never going to do; they are RSes for the reasons defined in WP:RS and having some bias is not a reason to dismiss these. But that said: I personally have zero love of Trump, and absolutely do not agree on the "fake news" claims made. But I will stand behind the fact that with Trump in office, many of the quality sources have slipped in a lot more bias towards the left which, when coupled with continued growth of opinionated journalism, makes distinguishing good news articles from op-eds disguised as news articles in some of these RSes tricky, and we should at least be aware of this matter. CNN is one of the worst offenders, but the WaPost is not too far behind in that they have blatant dislike of Trump across the board, at least when scanning through their headline articles. It doesn't make these RSes any worse in RSes but we should consider how a piece is framed on a case-by-case basis to determine if it is actually trying to just report impartially or throwing its media weight around. And this is something difficult to convince editors to consider: there's a lot of editors that go "If it is an RS and not labeled Op-Ed, everything said should be treated at face value." This is where things like RECENTISM needs to be kept in mind. Today is not the right time to try to be making encyclopedic articles that are based on judgement calls made by the media and instead should more closely stick to facts, and only well after Trump is out of office should we start really considering how media opinion of him comes about. These issues, which have been validly brought up in discussions, should not be swept into the same cries from the new/IP editors that want to make out left-leaning sources as "fake news".

At the same time, the Trump situation has made the bias in right-leaning RSes far more apparent (as in the case of Fox News here) who are often lock-step in with Trump's claims, so that's even more important to distinguish Fox's actual journalism (which is normally fine, they are an RS by definition) from anything with their talking-heads programs. --Masem (t) 15:55, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Indeed, and the NYTimes just published a bit of breaking news that aligns with some of the FoxNews predictions. IG will be publishing his report soon re: the FISA investigation, and it will be interesting to see how the media spins presents all this news as time progresses. I’m certainly in no hurry to rush to judgment, especially when all we have to go on is breaking news and/or news sources to build this encyclopedia. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 01:38, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

@Masem: Having a lot of headlines that look "anti-X" doesn't necessarily imply bias - it can just as well stem from "X" being a "bad" subject. That's why these things are measured comparatively and not by us. American media is well-studied, and according to RS Fox is aberrant in the media landscape. François Robere (talk) 12:12, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Understanding shifting biases is important but as I said, bias alone does not enter into whether something is an RS or not. Nor do I disagree with the stance that any Fox News talking head problem should be avoided like the plague as a source here, and that if we can get coverage from beyond Fox News' news desk coverage (which still meets the requirements of a RS), that would be better. But on the talking head issue, the same problems in talking head works at other RSes (op-eds, analysis pieces, etc.) are also apparent with their bias, and we absolutely should not be using such pieces, at least when discussing a very recent thing, because of the bias they exhibit. The reason to avoid Fox News talking heads has several more problems atop the bias and RECENTISM (eg promotion of false or questionable info), but any talking head opinion show or piece is trouble within WP for an ongoing topic particularly in the current media landscape. --Masem (t) 14:29, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Sources

Reliability vs UNDUE weight

We have been focused on the reliability of various news outlets, but perhaps we need to examine them from a different angle... that of undue weight. Specifically, does the way that Wikipedia uses news media give UNDUE weight to rumor and unsubstantiated opinion? Blueboar (talk) 14:55, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Is research by Amnesty International a valid source for Wikipedia?

Source: Amnesty International

Article: People's Mujahedin of Iran

Text in question: "Thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country. Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the process."

What's the verdict on this? Thanks :-) Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 22:23, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

• Aside from the grammatical problems with the first sentence, Amnesty is a good source for such topics. -- BullRangifer (talk) 22:29, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
• They're a respected advocacy group, and I would say they're a reasonable source for some basic information. However: there's inherent uncertainty in estimates of extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations, so in-text attribution is probably warranted here unless multiple sources say the same thing. Nblund ^talk 22:32, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
• Ahhh... I mean the title of the piece is "Blood-Soaked Secrets: Why Iran's Prison Massacres are Crimes Against Humanity". That indicates a pretty strong bias on the subject. Most sources like that, I wouldn't go anywhere near, no. If (say) it was ""Blood-Soaked Secrets: Why Hillary's Child Sex Rackets were Crimes Against Humanity", that'd be kind of a red flag too.

For instance, your quote says

Thousands of political dissidents were... extrajudicially executed

but

1) What is "extrajudicially"? It doesn't sound like the executions were illegal, since apparently the Supreme Leader of Iran said to do it, and with a title like Supreme Leader I suppose he can do whatever he wants. If it was all done according to Iranian law, then throwing in worlds like "extrajudicially" is pretty polemical I'd think, since it leads the reader toward making a conclusion that these events were illegal under Iranian law.

2) How confident can we be that its "thousands" and not just "hundreds"? Amnesty International is not Time magazine. At the end of the day, they are here to stop stuff like this from happening, not shuffle papers. If (for instance) saying "thousands" when it's really only "hundreds" makes for a punchier argument, then they'll say that. At least, I sure hope they would (if one's attitude is "Well, saying this will help our cause, but it would, technically, be inaccurate, so let's not", one should probably be working for the Los Angeles Times and not Amnesty International). They might be super vigilant about not making possible misstatements of fact for the business purpose of maintaining the integrity of their reputation for veracity. Might be. I don't know. Since I don't know, I'm suspicious. Herostratus (talk) 23:24, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Just to clarify, there's already a Wikipedia article about this massacre that the Amnesty International article describes (the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners), so this is about a well-established event. The question is whether the source can be used to add more details about the incident or not. Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 23:33, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Amnesty is usually considered reliable but partisan, so it should be attributed. As an aside, "extrajudicial" means "outside the judicial system". For example, the Holocaust was ordered by Hitler and other Nazi leaders but is still extrajudicial because victims were not tried and convicted before being executed. I doubt that Amnesty is deliberately pushing false information because that would damage its credibility beyond the very short term. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 23:50, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

In context there is a point at which the appearance of "a pretty strong bias" is actually nothing of the sort. Perhaps "a pretty strong emotional reaction", but those can be appropriate at times, like when all reliable sources agree that a mass murder took place. And to answer the question about "extrajudicial", in this case it means that though the killings were ordered by the government and de facto legal, these were not death penalties resulting from trial. Someguy1221 (talk) 23:40, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

It is a reliable source routinely cited by news media. I don't see that their bias against mass murder is a major problem since no reliable sources take a contrary position. In cases where editors question their information, it can be compared with other reliable sources. But the same is true for any source. TFD (talk) 23:52, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Reliable, but attribute to avoid any bias.Slatersteven (talk) 08:44, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

They aren't a new source. They are a respected advocacy organization and should be handled as such (in text attribution). With such organizations I've seen a mix of how people establish weight. It's clear when news sources cite something AI says. I've seen similar cases where such organizations are cited when they have a view on a subject but they haven't been cited by others. Springee (talk) 14:45, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• At the end of the day, Amnesty International is still an advocacy organization. They are not trying to be neutral and unbiased, they are trying to advocate. That the thing they advocate for enjoys pretty universal support in much of the world, still doesn't make then not an advocacy organization. If possible, we should prefer to use independent sources that reference or quote AI, and not AI themselves. Even if it is a given that the bare facts are accurate, there is liable to be substantial differences in presentation between an advocacy group vs a journalistic or scholarly source. If we must use AI directly as a source, the information should be attributed. GMG^talk 15:06, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yes, this is an excellent source on such subject. Even if someone considers it "biased" (I do not think it is really biased), such sources are perfectly fine per WP:RS, and especially with explicit attribution. My very best wishes (talk) 19:48, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• I tend to believe that claims sourced to an advocacy organization should be attributed to that organization. Amnesty International is a respected international organization that is commonly referred to by other sources, but they still exist for the sole purpose of pushing a particular point of view. Because of their prominence, that viewpoint is probably significant in most issues they opine on. But it'd be best to include something like, "According to Amnesty International" whenever using their resource as a source, instead of just treating their claims as fact. Red Rock Canyon (talk) 22:55, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• I usually see it used with in-text attribution and I think that is the right thing to do. --MarioGom (talk) 22:58, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yes, but they are ultimately an advocacy group and may not always distinguish clearly between advocacy and research. I'd place them near (perhaps slightly above) SPLC (RSP entry) regarding reliability. feminist (talk) 13:56, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yes in this case. It's a weighty document that contains much material to allow cross-checking of its claims. The numbers might be open to dispute if it weren't for the fact that they actually list the names: the regime could have skewered the document just by producing the people, if this were a sloppy list. They are an advocacy organisation, sure, but this is a report not a pamphlet or exhortation, and it contains many indicia of reliability and enough hostages to fortune that if it were sloppy it could have been used to completely discredit Amnesty. Guy (help!) 16:30, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Comment A number of editors have questioned the reliability of Amnesty International on the basis that it is an advocacy group. However there is no policy based reason for that view. "Biased or opinionated sources" says, "reliable sources are not required to be neutral, unbiased, or objective." In fact very few sources with the exception of tertiary sources such as review studies and encyclopedias are unbiased. Tertiary sources are unbiased in the sense that they seek to explain the biased views in secondary sources according their relative weight of acceptance. But health journals have a bias toward health, biology journals have a bias toward evolution, earth sciences have a bias toward the existence of climate change, etc. TFD (talk) 01:44, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

The Guardian

This newspaper has an inherent left wing bias in all it's articles, It's op-ed pieces are often anti-semetic. Why is it considered as a reliable source for anything?80.0.45.128 (talk) 00:29, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

The Guardian is covered at WP:RS/P. - SummerPhD^v2.0 00:54, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• Here's a list of awards received by The Guardian and a list of past discussions on The Guardian's reliability. Do you have any specific examples that would support your claims against The Guardian's reliability? — Newslinger talk 00:58, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• The Guardian is an eminently RS. Apparently offense has been taken that it accurately describes Milo Yiannopoulos as "Far Right". -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:31, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• WP:RS is about having a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, not about being unbiased. A source simply having a perspective you find objectionable isn't sufficient to make it unreliable; see WP:BIASED. The question when dealing with such sources (and I'm not sure the Guardian would even qualify as such relative to news media as a whole) is whether its perspective or bias influences its reporting. There's a huge difference between a source like The Guardian that simply has a particular perspective and one that (for instance) was created to advance a perspective or which systematically has that perspective disseminated from above by a set of daily talking points as at Fox News; and even then, there's a difference between sources that work to advance a particular agenda (but do so 'fairly', ie. by reporting the news as it happens, if with a slant or with selective focus), and sources like the Daily Mail that just outright make stuff up, report stories with gross distortions, and otherwise don't exhibit the fact-checking and accuracy that WP:RS requires. --Aquillion (talk) 06:49, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

So? as has been said multiple times. BIas is not a reason for exclusion, if it was Fox would be banned, its not.Slatersteven (talk) 08:43, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

All bias media sources, Fox included should not be used as a RS for any project such as this. If a source is not centre and independent, then you cannot trust what they are reporting is true, or what facts are being ommitted to suit the bias of their articles. But if this is how wikipedia works then so be it. It will continue to be a joke in scholarly circles. Kind Regards J 80.0.45.128 (talk) 22:31, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia (RSP entry) is not a reliable source, and I would certainly hope that no academic publication directly uses content from Wikipedia, except for the purpose of studying or quoting Wikipedia itself. All readers are advised to exercise due diligence when using Wikipedia for research.

On media bias, our neutral point of view policy requires us to balance biased sources with sources representing other perspectives in proportion to their due weight. "Neutrality requires that each article or other page in the mainspace fairly represents all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources." (WP:DUE) The result is a neutral article not obtained by limiting ourselves to extremely neutral sources like the Associated Press (RSP entry) or Reuters (RSP entry), which would unnecessarily restrict our coverage, but by forming an accurate reflection of the world around us. — Newslinger talk 22:53, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• The Grauniad has a solid reputation for fact-checking and draws clear distinctions between news and editorial content. It has won many awards for high quality journalism. It is a reliable source. Guy (help!) 16:41, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Reveal News / Center for Investigative Reporting

Please could we consider Reveal News (http://www.revealnews.org)? They are an online outlet but also air their radio show / podcast on various radio stations across the USA. They have been around since 1977 and have won a truly staggering amount of awards and nominations, most recently Pulitzer, Peabody, etc:

https://www.revealnews.org/awards/
https://awards.journalists.org/organizations/reveal/

Not sure how to properly propose this as a RS? Apeholder (talk) 01:23, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

They seem to be accepted as a RS here. Their content seems good. -- BullRangifer (talk) 01:43, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Apeholder, You don't need to. If you think it's reliable just cite it, if someone disagrees that's when the RSN discussion comes in. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 01:43, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

It's fine to ask tho IMO. Shouln't be discouraged. Herostratus (talk) 14:58, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Unspeakable Love

It would be OK to use this material Soon after the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini established the death penalty for homosexuality. In February and March of 1979, there were 16 executions for crimes related to sexual violations attributed to the following source in Ruhollah Khomeini article? source:Whitaker, Brian (2011). Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East. Saqi Books. ISBN 0863564836.

I have to say that I cannot find any other sources to support "Ayatollah Khomeini established the death penalty for homosexuality".Saff V. (talk) 14:19, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Books are usually poor sources for statements of fact, the reason being that books are usually not fact-checked by independent fact checkers. You are therefore thrown back largely on your confidence in the author. Well let's see... Brian Whitaker has an article. He's a legit journalist, writes for The Guardian... Which means he's not an academic. However, is clearly very expert in the general subject. He speaks Arabic and has written several books. The passage is very specific: "In February and March of 1979, there were 16 executions." Not the sort of thing that a person like him would just make up. He seems unlikely, with his level of expertise, to have confused "executions" with "imprisonments" or something. Is this something he would do on purpose? Well, he's got a website, al-bab, so you can check him out more thoroughly there... Here is his Twitter feed. And here is a library of his Guardian articles. He could be vetted more thoroughly thru these, but my overall sense is that no, he probably wouldn't do that, as it doesn't seem to fit what looks to be his business and career model. To the the extent that he might have a strong enough polemical bias to twist facts on purpose, he doesn't show it right off.

TL;DR: Has the expertise to not get this wrong. Does not appear likely in my view to have got it wrong on purpose. So, source is OK. Just OK, but OK enough in my book. Herostratus (talk) 14:51, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Source is RS. There are billions of other sources that confirm homosexuals were outlawed under Khomeini "because it went against the Quran". Sky is blue. --HistoryofIran (talk) 15:06, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

@HistoryofIran:, Well in that case, we should use one of those sources instead, one that's been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal or publication known to have a good fact-checking operation. Herostratus (talk) 10:45, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

I have no idea where the idea books are usually bad sources comes from. The publisher seem reputable, the author is a respected journalist who actual,y has a qualification related to the topic this book is about. Now there may be an argument for attribution, but its RS.Slatersteven (talk) 16:45, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

@Slatersteven:, It comes from the idea that books are not fact checked. Articles in Time magazine are actually gone over by a fact-checker, independent of the write. She consults reference works, makes phone calls, and so forth to double-check that the writer indeed got his facts right.

Books are not fact-checked in this way. Books are gone over by a copy editor, but she is looking for spelling and grammar mistakes and awkward wording; she might check some facts on an ad hoc basis, but not rigoursly. There's no time; she's got X days to copy edit the entire book, and fact-checking is labor intensive. Sometimes an author will pay out of his own pocket and hire a fact-checker. Not usually.

And indeed I have some instances of distinguished authors getting fact wrong in books.

Nor does the publisher care. HarperCollins etc. know that people buy books by subject and author. No one says "Oh, a new HarperCollins books, I'll buy it". So it's not their business model to care. They won't publish books by InfoWars type authors who make up facts wholesale from whole cloth, because that'd eventually tend to degrade their reputation; that's different from caring whether a proper author is loose with occasional facts. "Reputable publisher" sounds comforting, but it's just a magic word. It doesn't mean much really.

So, a book is little better than a blog. The fact that it has physical mass, hard covers, cost some money to create, fancy dust cover... it feels comforting, but it doesn't mean anything really. Tha's not terrible; a lot of blogs are fine. It's just a matter of how reliable you think the author is, and you have to recognize that without a fact-checker even the best author's book or blog is going to be "Acceptable, but not great". Brian Whitaker looks reliable enough for me. Whether he had published his statement in a book or on his blog makes no real difference. We've decided to trust Brian Whitaker that what he says is true. Herostratus (talk) 10:45, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

@Herostratus: your evaluation of the author was good but I think you may have a more accurate "sense" if you note that the author of [15] has used another book (Afary, Janet and Anderson, Kevin: Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islam. Chicago 2005, p. 161.) as the reference for the claims. It is more interesting that in the footnote 31 of the later book, p.292 , the author has used email exchanges as a source of information! Can we rely on this?Saff V. (talk) 06:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Why wouldn't we? Email correspondence with experts in a given field is a valid way for journalists and academics to obtain information. It also cites a piece by Eliz Sanasarian, and other academic writings, and is published by University of Chicago Press. I don't see anything that would contradict this being a reliable source, in fact quite the opposite. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 08:17, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

No less then face to face interviews.Slatersteven (talk) 08:57, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Pleas take look at the provided link then make the commment, Not only the source is the email exchanges, but also are this two unriliable website, homan and [16]. it is what was written in footnote:

Some of this information is based on an e-mail exchange with Goudarz Eghtedari (Iran). For a discussion of this issue, see Sanasarian 2000 and various issues of the journal Homan (1999–2001). For more information on the Iranian GLB movement, see the website for Homan: The Group to Defend the Rights of Iranian Gays and Lesbians, www.homan.cwc.net. For literature on Iranian lesbians, see www.geocities.com/khanaeyedoost.According to Duran, “homosexual assault is frequently used by the police of repressive regimes, such as the SAVAK during the reign of the Shah of Iran or its successor,SAVAMA, the dreaded security organ of the Khomeini government” (1993, 187). Saff V. (talk) 11:44, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

@AmbivalentUnequivocality: According to which policy of wp:RS is the email exchanges reliable?Saff V. (talk) 11:56, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Are we citing to it?Slatersteven (talk) 11:59, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, the main source for that claim is email which as WP:SOURCE demanded, Unpublished materials are not considered reliable.Saff V. (talk) 12:17, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Hold on I am confused now, is the claim being sourced to the book, or an e-mail?Slatersteven (talk) 12:32, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

A book, which cites another book, which cited email. Staff V seems to be arguing that since the chain starts with email, subsequent books based on the email are not RS. Blueboar (talk) 12:46, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I will reserve judgement on the merits of such an argument (though I think my above responses should give a clue) based upon what his response it.Slatersteven (talk) 12:48, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I suggest then you read wp:rs which does not support your contention. Books are RS, as long as they meet certain criteria, this one does. If you are not happy with this I suggest you take it to village pump and try to get policy changed.Slatersteven (talk) 12:20, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes, the book very clearly qualify as a good secondary RS on the subject. And what is the argument against using it, exactly? "A book, which cites another book, which cited email"... so the book is not an RS? This is the same "argument" as in the thread just below about Soviet gas vans. Wrong. An author of a secondary RS/a book can cite whatever (or nothing at all), but it is still his/her conclusion, and it is clearly a secondary RS. My very best wishes (talk) 13:12, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

This secondary book is not reliable for this claim, because these claims refers to email! I did not talk about being reliable book or not generally.Saff V. (talk) 14:35, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Not only you are making an original research here, but you are trying to disprove claims made by a reliable source (a book by an expert) while not being an expert on this subject yourself. This is POV-pushing. My very best wishes (talk) 15:13, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Books written by practicing journalists who specialize in reporting on the field the book is about (in this case, the internal politics of Middle Eastern countries) ought to be treated as reliable subject to the precautions stated in WP:BIASED. Some of the best reporting on the contentious and highly technical field of nuclear weapons proliferation has been in books authored by journalists who work for large newspapers and news magazines. The guidance in WP:BIASED has never been more appropriate wnen citing news sources in general, not just books or famously agenda-driven news outlets. --loupgarous (talk) 13:59, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

It is reasonable to say "Statements written by practicing journalists who specialize in reporting on the field... ought to be treated as reliable subject to the precautions stated in WP:BIASED". It's not necessarily true, but it's reasonable, as long as its understood that there are exceptions, and it depends on what the statement is.

Because whether its a book, a blog, an interview, or any other public statement doesn't necessarily or even usually make much difference. Just understand that, book or blog, if the person made a mistake -- for instance, slipped up reading a column of figures and wrote that the 2017 nominal GDP of Czechia is 245,000 (when actually that is the 2018 number) -- nobody is going to check that, probably. So it is not just expertise and lack of bias, you also need an author who wants to be and is able to be pretty careful about each statement of fact she puts under her name. Lots of writers are expert and unbiased, but not super careful. (As I said above, this particular writer for this particular statement of fact from this particular book is probably OK.) Herostratus (talk) 18:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

And any argument here must be based upon policy, not logic. Policy does not say that blogs and books are the same. Can we close this now, its just going round in circles.Slatersteven (talk) 08:19, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Gas vans in the USSR and Nazi Germany, pt. 2

After substantial input from editors here including @Assayer, Slatersteven, Aquillion, My very best wishes, The Four Deuces, Someguy1221, Paul Siebert, Nug, K.e.coffman, and ZScarpia: discussion was quickly archived. Not being aware of discussion here, I tried to consolidate accounts of NKVD gas vans [17]. Quickly thereafter My very best wishes has expanded our article's emphasis on Soviet use of gas vans, and changed the article's language to be more definitive [18].

My main concern is that the Nazi systematic use of gas vans for extermination is being subordinated to their sporadic and uncertain use in the purges in a manner that violates WP:WEIGHT. This is especially alarming to me because The Four Deuces suggests that this has been a cause célèbre for holocaust deniers including Udo Walendy.

Until this discussion and investigation is included, hopefully in a manner involving a greater number of editors, I think we should be conservative with the article Gas van. -Darouet (talk) 14:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

This is not really an RS issue, its a NPOV issue.Slatersteven (talk) 16:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

This has been already discussed on WP:NPOV noticeboard [19], with consensus to expand the section about Nazi Germany. User Assayer promised to expand it, and he is welcome to do just that. Who said "this has been a cause célèbre for holocaust deniers"? If that can be reliably sourced to something other than Holocaust deniers themselves, perhaps this should be included to the page? My very best wishes (talk) 17:42, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

• As others have said, this is a WP:DUE / WP:TONE issue that is better taken to WP:NPOVN - at this point it's hard to see what reliable-sourcing question is being asked at all, since the real dispute is over focus and framing rather than what sources to use. Although I should also point out (since I see people in the discussion on that page bringing up the previous WP:RSN discussions as though they settled this definitively) that those discussions were over whether the sources can be used under WP:RS, not whether they should be used under WP:DUE or, if so, how much weight to give them and what tone to take under WP:TONE. Those, unfortunately, tend to be more difficult questions. --Aquillion (talk) 18:30, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Comments by involved users (@Assayer, Slatersteven, Aquillion, My very best wishes, The Four Deuces, Someguy1221, Paul Siebert, Nug, K.e.coffman, ZScarpia, and Darouet:

Actually, there is also an issue that makes this discussion relevant to this noticeboard. On the article's talk page, @Darouet: proposed to list all sources that tell about Soviet gas vans, and to summarise which secondary sources are based on which primary sources. I think it would be good to move this discussion here. Moreover, per comments on the NPOV talk page, I propose to organize this discussion in such a way that involved and uninvolved users are separated from each other. In my opinion, noticeboards like this one are created to give more opportunity for non-involved users to voice their opinion, so that style seems to serve to this purpose better.

Here is my summary of all sources:

• A collection of testimonies published in Kontinent. The author is a writer specialized in cinematography. He just collected all available testimonies about Butovo polygon. He provided no own analysis of testimonies, so, in my opinion, this book, despite the fact that it is a useful source of information, is just a collection of primary sources.
• The Komsomolskaya Pravda article published in 1990 by Zhirnov. This article is not available online (to the best of my knowledge). It is very likely that the Zhirnov's article used the Berg's dossier, the same document cited by the Kontinent (vide supra).

The Zhirnov's article was cited by several secondary sources, each of which used it as the sole source about Soviet gas vans. These sources are:

1. Timothy J. Colton. Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis. Belknap Press, 1998. ISBN 0-674-58749-9 p. 286
2. Е. Жирнов. «По пути следования к месту исполнения приговоров отравлялись газом». Коммерсантъ Власть, № 44, 2007 (the article by the same author who just re-tells the story he published in KP).
3. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Two Hundred Years Together (Двести лет вместе), volume=2, Москва, Русский путь, 2002, ISBN 5-85887-151-8, p. 297
4. Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, KGB: The State Within a State. 1995, page 101
5. Robert Gellately, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe, Knopf, 2007, ISBN 140003213X, p.460.

In addition, the source Marek Hałaburda, “The Polish Operation”. The genocide of the Polish people in the USSR in the years 1937–1938, Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia, 2013, v.5, p. 71. just cites the Polish book Wielki Terror: 1937–1938 by Tomasz Kizny, who, according to Joanna Madloch (The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 57, No. 4 (WINTER 2013), pp. 699-70) is just an independent photographer. Therefore, it is highly unlikely Kizny performed any independent archival research, and, most likely, he is telling the same story that the KP article.

• The article Н. Петров. «Человек в кожаном фартуке». Nikita Petrov, Novaya Gazeta (ru:Новая газета, спецвыпуск «Правда ГУЛАГа» от 02.08.2010 № 10 (31)) tells essentially the same story as the Zhirnov's article, but it provides no sources, so it is highly likely it is based on the information provided by Zhirnov (an author of the KP article).
• We also have the Grigorenko's book where he cites (from memory) testimonies of one person who happened to see what he described as usage of a gas van in Omsk in 1930s. In my opinion, the author provided no analysis of this primary source, so this source should be considered as a highly questionable primary source.
• Next source is memoirs by ex-policeman М. П. Шрейдеp. According to him, during transportation, the victims were intoxicated by car exhaust that made them semi-conscious. He is not telling that the primary reason was to kill them during transportation. Therefore, usage of this source is a direct violation of the rules that regulate usage of primary sources.
• The article by Sokolov (Газовые душегубки: сделано в СССР (Gas vans: made in the USSR) by Dmitry Sokolov, Echo of Crimea, 09.10.2012) was published in a local Ukrainian newspaper. It essentially summarizes the information from the above mentioned sources.
• In addition, we have the article published is a personal blog by Nicholas Terry, a scholar who is professionally studying Holocaust and Holocaust denial. This article says the Soviet gas van story is used by Holocaust deniers to blame Jews in invention of gas vans.

In my opinion, there is a big problem with usage of sources, which are organized in such a way that multiple sources that used a tabloid article as the sole source of information are presented as many independent sources. In addition, several primary sources are used as secondary ones, whereas the opinion of the scholar who professionally studies the Holocaust is ignored. As a result, we have a three pronged violation: WP:V, WP:NPOV, WP:NOR are violated simultaneously.

Again, to let uninvolved user voice their opinion, all participants are strongly encouraged to comment in "involved" and "non-involved" sections, accordingly.--Paul Siebert (talk) 03:04, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

@AmbivalentUnequivocality: I probably was not clear enough. When I listed the sources that are based on a single KP article, I meant that they cite only this article as a source of information. For example, Solzhenitsyn clearly writes that he obtained the information about gas vans from this KP article, and he does not cite any other source. There is no indication that Albatz, Merridale, Gellately, Solzhenitsyn use any other source besides the Zhirnov's article. Therefore, it is not my guess: they are talking about the same story that happened during the Great Purge, they cite only the KP article, they cite no arcival documents, they present no witness testimonies, and there is no indication any of them did any independent archival studies of this issue. Therefore, there can be no "probably" here: each of them is based on that KP article, and only on that article. Later articles authored by Zhirnov tell the same story, and they are based on the same single document the author happened to see in 1990, so it is not an independent publication either. The Polish work cites another Polish book authored by a photographer, who also did no archival research, and the only source of information available to him could be either that KP article or some of the sources listed by me above. That is not a guess, that is a logical conclusion.

In addition, nobody claims these sources should be rejected, the problem is different: if several sources are telling the story that was taken from some single source, we cannot present them as several independent sources. Quite the opposite: we have to list them all, but we must clearly explain the connection between each of them and the original publication each of them is based upon.

--Paul Siebert (talk) 03:21, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I am referring to things you have said such as "It is very likely that the Zhirnov's article used the Berg's dossier", "The article...tells essentially the same story as the Zhirnov's article, but it provides no sources, so it is highly likely it is based on the information provided by Zhirnov" and "it is highly unlikely Kizny performed any independent archival research, and, most likely, he is telling the same story that the KP article". These seem to be to be your assumptions about these sources, and not verifiable facts. Just because something is, in your opinion, "very/highly/most likely", does not mean that we can consider it as such. That is, as far as I can tell, your original research. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 05:41, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

@AmbivalentUnequivocality: Of course, it is verifiable. Thus, it is quite possible to find Kizny's book and check what source he was using. Taking into account that he himself is not a historian, and his book is not devoted to the gas van topic, it is highly unlikely that he did any independent research. Therefore, we have a very serious reason to assume it is not an independent source, but just a repetition of what other sources say. That can and should be checked, and, until it is checked, we should not use it.--Paul Siebert (talk) 14:12, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I will reiterate; it is only your opinion that this is "highly unlikely", and making such assessments of sources is original research. I give very little weight to assumptions, no matter how serious one thinks the causes for such assumptions may be. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 04:46, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Guy, it seems this issue does belong to this page, at least, partially. First, should we treat the source that just reproduces a single secondary source as secondary or tertiary? Second, should we treat it as an independent source, or we should clarify the hierarchy of sources (which source is based on which)?--Paul Siebert (talk) 14:17, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• Unfortunately, I think the comments by Paul are misleading and indeed original research. No, the publication in Kontinent is not just a collection of testimonies. There is no such thing as "Butovo polygon". Paul could not even find the article in Komsomolskaya Pravda he tells was used by other sources. All authors of secondary sources clearly express their own views on the subject, they do not even cite directly the alleged source "...", including even later publications by the same author (Zhirnov). We simply do not know what other sources the historians (Albatz, Merridale, Gellately, Solzhenitsyn, etc.) could use, all of them are established experts. If even I could find four additional sources (such as the articles in Kontinent and by Sokolov and memoirs by Grigorenko and Shreider, none of which ever mention the article in Komsomolskaya Pravda), so could others. My very best wishes (talk) 15:07, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

1. It doesn't matter, if the comments of an editor on sources are "original research" or not. In fact, research is indispensable to assess the reliability of sources.
2. The publication in Kontinent is merely a transcript of interviews for a documentary. The previous discussion at best proposed to use this source with caution and attribution. Actually I am surprised that My very best wishes is so in favour of that source, because it directly contradicts their other sources, in that the Soviet gas vans according to these "eyewitnesses" were not used for execution, but for rendering the victims unconscious before they were shot.
3. Albatz, Colton, and Solzhenitsyn cite Komsomolskaya Pravda. Merridale cites Colton. To use Merridale and Colton as seperate sources is misleading. As of now the translator of Yevgenia Albatz' work has even been promoted to co-author status. Does anybody think that this increases reliability?
4. It does not matter what other sources historians might have used use. That's mere speculation. It is clear from the footnotes that many used only one source and others kept copying. Those are not independent sources.
5. The current use of sources in the article is so focused upon using everything available, that errors and contradictions are reproduced over and over again. I already introduced a work on Stalin's secret police by Alexander Vatlin.[20] Based upon Berg's personal file it is clear that Berg became chief of the administrative economic department in Moscow’s NKVD in the summer of 1937 and was arrested on 3 August 1938. Instead, based upon a newspaper article by Zhirnov, Wikipedia claims that Berg was arrested in 1937. That's an example of WP:INACCURACY and demonstrates how (un)reliable Zhirnov is. What could be found on Berg with Vatlin has quickly been removed from the article. Seems that this source didn't fit into the narrative, because Vatlin does not mention "Soviet gas vans".
6. To a large degree this is indeed an issue of WP:DUE. However, I would like to know when exactly WP:VERIFIABILITY and WP:SCHOLARSHIP were thrown over board. As of now interviews, newspaper articles, novelists and studies from the 90ies are preferred over more recent scholarship.--Assayer (talk) 18:22, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Verifiable means if I read it and you read it we see the same thing, not that it is accurate. Scholarship is one part of RS, so it WP:NEWSORG, what it does not say is we can only use scholarly sources. So none of the above throws either out. I really suggest this is closed now, its not an RS issue and is becoming tiresome. Do not ping me again, I have said all I wish to say.Slatersteven (talk) 18:28, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Historical articles should rely on scholarly works where possible And, yes, Scholarly sources and high-quality non-scholarly sources are generally better than news reports for academic topics. There is no grounds for an "anything goes"-approach. If there was any ping, it was unintentional and maybe due to the edit summary. --Assayer (talk) 19:47, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Comments by non-involved users

• I do not really want to wade too deeply into this here (Seems like not really the correct place), but I will say that the above argument relies far too much on the assumptions, guesses, and opinions of one editor(unsigned, but page history shows it is Paul Siebert) to the point that it verges pretty deeply into Original Research territory. I am not comfortable with their assessment that all these sources "probably" rely upon the same source, especially when that source is unavailable. I see a whole lot of "in my opinion", "It is very likely", "highly likely", etc. This is really nothing more than guesswork, and you cannot dismiss sources based on an editor's assumptions or guesses, which seems to be the backbone of the above argument. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 01:36, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not an involved edd, and have no idea how I am supposed to be involved. We do not second guess sources, we do not use assumption or OR to dismiss them. This is not an RS issue (the sources have been found to be RS) its a weight issue. This is getting tedious now.Slatersteven (talk) 09:00, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Comments

• This is very strange posting by User:Paul Siebert. He tells that all multiple RS above "used a tabloid article as the sole source of information". Why? No, they did not. Actually, most of the sources above perfectly qualify as independent secondary RS per WP:RS (only two of them are reliably published memoirs by famous people and therefore probably primary RS, which does not preclude their usage per policy). An exception is this blog post, which was posted by an anonymous user with Russian name [21]. No, this is not posting by Nicholas Terry. Fortunately, no one suggested to use this blog on the page so far. My very best wishes (talk) 23:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
• This is not a RS question, the sourcing is generally fine and can be addressed case by case on Talk anyway. The issue is of WP:UNDUE, and as far as I can see we can fix that simply by putting the Nazi section first (since that's far and away the most prominent). I have done that. Guy (help!) 10:40, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
• How is this even an argument?! Everyone has heard about Nazi gan vans, lots of sources. "Soviet gas trucks" are covered by Russian tabloids who recount an eyewitness of a truck which nauseated but didn't kill transportees, some sources who repeat the tabloids, and Holocaust deniers who try to downplay Nazi gas vans. Nazi gas vans existed and killed many. The existence of a few "Soviet gas trucks" isn't even certain. Eostrix (talk) 11:15, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

This page does not include a single reference to tabloids or to Holocaust deniers. I did not see a single RS saying anything about Holocaust deniers in relation to the Soviet gas vans. None of the cited sources downplays Nazi gas vans. My very best wishes (talk) 11:57, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I don't know much about this, but I did search. What I found in English: [22] or [23] is on www.vho.org whose title is "The Holocaust Controversy A Case for open Debate". German-Wikipedia calls Weckert a "Holocaust denier". The Russian-Wikipedia is skeptical on Berg - "no evidence". Eostrix (talk) 15:46, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

OK. Russian Wikipedia is not an RS, but it provides a link to yet another source [24], newspaper Argumenty i Fakty (currently not used on our page Gas van). There, a Russian state security official tells about Soviet gas vans as matter of fact. Furthermore, your both sources (linked pdfs) also claim that Soviet gas vans did exist and refer to an additional source, a "four-part television series ... broadcast in the United States" (also currently not used on our page). However, one of the linked sources is a book by a Holocaust denier as you say, and another one is from the "The World's largest website for Historical Revisionism!". Are you saying they should be used for sourcing on the page? Argumenty i Fakty look OK to me. My very best wishes (talk) 16:17, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not suggesting www.vho.org. Color me skeptical when everything I find in English is linked to Holocaust denial.Eostrix (talk) 16:34, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, that's because some people denied the use of gas vans by Nazi. My very best wishes (talk) 16:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• My understanding was that Terry (the central academic RS in this case) was ambivalent if the Soviet gas vans existed but asserted if they did exist they were a small "innovation" with a local scope, not something codified into policy. Simonm223 (talk) 14:34, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

What "central academic RS" do you mean? This blog post by this anonymous user [25]? My very best wishes (talk) 14:46, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Source to check

These have come up as possible sources, can someone check them?

The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930-45 Stephen Wheatcroft Europe-Asia Studies Vol. 48, No. 8 (Dec., 1996), pp. 1319-1353 "construction of gas-vans ('dushegubki') in 1937".

Cheers.Slatersteven (talk) 15:21, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Sole mention I see is in footnote 75 (page 1353):

"Valentin Kovalev quotes a statement from Isaiah Davidovich Berg, the former head of the administrative economic department of the Moscow oblast' NKVD , that he had participated in the construction of gas-vans ('dushegubki') in 1937 in order to gas to death those sentenced to be shot. Further confirmation is needed concerning this sensational claim. See Valentin Kovalev, Dva Stalinskikh Narkoma (Moscow, Univers, 1995), p . 241"

So a sensational claim needing further confirmation. Eostrix (talk) 15:28, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

How about [[[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lXM2H6tWHskC&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286&dq=dushegubki+%2B+nkvd&source=bl&ots=fOiZKwVv_F&sig=ACfU3U24SQrch93sKcvAr-jwbrbIUxRgeg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrMjB27LlAhU5QUEAHQAMDfMQ6AEwDHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=dushegubki%20%2B%20nkvd&f=false]?Slatersteven (talk) 15:40, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

One sentence on "ginned up" lorry by Isai D. Berg at Butovo. No discussion, the rest of the page discusses shootings there. Eostrix (talk) 15:45, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Is it an RS? If it is then we have an RS that talk s about this. Anything else is another matter.Slatersteven (talk) 15:46, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The reference number 75 in the Wheatcroft's article is used in the sentence

" Auschwitz as a centre for mass killing should be compared with the mass shootings[75] of the NKVD throughout the 1930s, and not with the Gulag or the famine."

The ref 75 says:

" Valentin Kovalev quotes a statement from Isaiah Davidovich Berg, the former head of the administrative economic department of the Moscow oblast' NKVD, that he had participated in the construction of gas-vans ('dushegubki') in 1937 in order to gas to death those sentenced to be shot. Further confirmation is needed concerning this sensational claim."

That means that (i) Kovalev refers to the same document that was used by Zhirnov in his KP article, and, most likely, Kovalev's claim is based on the same KP article, and (ii) Wheatcroft, who is a really serious historian specializing in Stalinist repressions, thinks that that claim is "sensational" and needs further confirmation.--Paul Siebert (talk) 05:07, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Regarding the book, this page is not available to me, and I couldn't read it. However, if it tells about Berg, then it is definitely based on the same KP article, because the Berg's dossier seems to have been classified again (the only person who happened to see it was Zhirnov). Again, we are speaking about the same story reproduced by several secondary sources. --Paul Siebert (talk) 05:11, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Which is irrelevant, that is not how RS works. We are not allowed to second guess or analyse RS. They may well be reap;ting the same story (assuming they are, and that is an assumption), they are still RS.Slatersteven (talk) 08:22, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Not exactly. We are allowed, and we must analyse RS before we use them. Thus, my analysis shows that the RS found by you supports the claim that the statement about Soviet gas van found in Valentin Kovalev's book is sensational, and it requires further confirmations. Do you have any objection to that?--Paul Siebert (talk) 23:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Is pakpedia.pk a reliable source for a BLP? Or anything?

It's main page is here and there's a disclaimer here that says "Pakpedia is a Pakistan’s biggest Encyclopedia where you can find all the information in detail about Pakistan related to all the categories including personalities, locations, cities, government sectors, tourist places and many more. All the content provided in the articles has been taken from different sites as the articles are written with many references which you may check in the article so if you find that the content is wrong or the content is too old which needs correction or something too negative written about any personality or anything then you are most welcome to do tell us on the provided email and please give us maximum 72 hours for the correction." I see it's used for Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar but I came here via Hassan Hayat. I guess while I'm here I should ask about Diva Magazine also.[26] Thanks. Doug Weller talk 15:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

I would say not, as we may have circular referencing issue.Slatersteven (talk) 16:41, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Per "All the content provided in the articles has been taken from different sites" I wouldn't use it for anything except checking if they have useful refs, possibly as EL on a case-by-case basis. Unclear what Diva is so I wouldn't use it for anything remotely controversial/BLP-ish. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:56, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• Not RS, as far as I can tell. None of the indicia of reliability. "If you want your desire article should be publish on pakpedia then mail us on our given email id we will publish your article on pakpedia." Guy (help!) 10:34, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• • Thanks. User:JzG, User:Slatersteven, any comments about Diva? Doug Weller talk

"LATEST POSTS" worries me, and I am having trouble finding out if they have an editorial policy. At this stage I am erring towards not RS.Slatersteven (talk) 16:13, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

DIVA looks to be a clickbait site. No evidence of reliability that I can see. Guy (help!) 21:41, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Proceed. 8th Internat. Meeting Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution

Is [27] by Dr. Ursula B. Göhlich of the Naturhistorisches Museum in the Proceed. 8th Internat. Meeting Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution a reliable source for Cécile Mourer-Chauviré? Lopifalko raised some concerns but is unsure at Talk:Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, and I am now unsure too. They referred me here. Eostrix (talk) 10:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

The source is not independent, since Mourer-Chauviré was former secretary of SAPE. Additional sources are needed. That being said, I think it is usable for the essential facts. Avoid using self-serving passages such as She significantly impacted paleornithological research in and out-side of Europe for the last 50 years and is in high demand as an expert and favored collaborator for researchers all over the world, but especially for the next generation of paleornithologists. --MarioGom (talk) 10:47, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Should vpnpro dot com be considered a reliable source?

Citation no. 49 in NordVPN#Tesonet_court_case cites an article at vpnpro.com (https://vpnpro.com/blog/why-pwc-audit-of-nordvpn-logging-policy-is-a-big-deal/) which in my opinion sounds like a sponsored advertisement. The website also contains a large amount of irrelevant articles, which makes it appear to me like a paid promotional website. In my opinion, such a website shouldn't be considered a reliable source, since it puts paid content above the goal of creating an encyclopedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldosfan (talk • contribs) 11:33, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Clearly not a reliable source. It is a blog in the business of profiting from affiliate links to NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark VPN. --MarioGom (talk) 11:37, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• Blacklist as sponsored content. Almost all of the content on VPNPro is native advertising with calls to action, and is generally unreliable. VPNPro's group blog is a self-published source with no little to no details on the authors and no indication of any editorial process. — Newslinger talk 11:54, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

agreed. since the consensus at this time seems to be that it's unreliable/sponsored, I think it would be prudent to remove that link and paragraph from the NordVPN article. Would (oldosfan) 03:20, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Celebitchy.com - Reliable?

Taking a wiki walk, I stumbled across some stange, hard to believe information sourced to "Celebitchy.com", which I then removed because It didn't seem like a reliable source. Seeing how it doesn't seem to have been discussed before, I'm now bringing the site here- should "Celebitchy.com" be considered a reliable source? Articles used in. 💵Money💵emoji💵^{Talk💸Help out at CCI!} 15:05, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Not reliable:

https://www.celebitchy.com/advertise/ Celebitchy is a gossip and entertainment blog...

https://www.celebitchy.com/legal_disclaimer/ Celebitchy, LLC makes no claims that content is valid, accurate, or true. --Ronz (talk) 15:43, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

The family of websites that celebitchy is a part of includes blacklisted justjared.com, and TMZ. They all look very poor if not outright unreliable. --Ronz (talk) 16:26, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

• Generally unreliable. Celebitchy describes itself as "a celebrity gossip site". It should generally be avoided per WP:BLPGOSSIP and WP:NOTGOSSIP. We've previously blacklisted gossip blogs (such as Just Jared, mentioned above), so if editors are repeatedly adding Celebitchy to articles in an inappropriate way, a spam blacklist request may be warranted. — Newslinger talk 17:49, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

stuff.co.nz re Science of Identity Foundation

A Stuff.co.nz article entitled 'I survived a Krishna cult' has been cited on the Science of Identity Foundation page by Localemediamonitor and 207.233.45.12.

The 'stuff' article is based on assertions by Rama das Ranson. He is obviously very troubled, so I hesitate to post an excerpt here that might subject him to ridicule. But a quick check of Ranson's website raises serious doubts about the suitability of this as a source. Humanengr (talk) 19:50, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Bevan Hurley wrote the article you're referring to in Stuff.co.nz, and that publication's editors published the article. That is a separate issue from Rama das Ranson's remarks in a self-published website. WP:SYNTHESIS says we can't look at what Ranson says or how he says it anywhere but reliable secondary sources like the article you're asking about. That article "I survived a Krishna cult" confines itself to reporting what Rama das Ranson said about his experiences, and related events and statements by others. The article even gives the group's response to Rama das Ranson's comments about them.

I do see a problem with the statement in our article which the Stuff article is cited to support, however:

"Former members of the group describe it as a cult."

The Stuff article mentions Ranson's accusations and those of a Member of New Zealand's Parliament (which the article says were later retracted after a lawsuit) of cultism. These accusations may be given undue weight in our article's text, even though the Stuff.co.nz article meets WP:SECONDARY guidelines for a reliable secondary source.

I would suggest altering the text citing that article to say something like "Former Science of Identity Foundation member Rama das Ranson describes the group as a cult, based on his personal experiences with the group".

There's no reason not to use the article you're asking about. It is part of published comment in secondary sources on the subject of our article. It may be possible to find other secondary sources balancing Rama das Ranson's perspective. --loupgarous (talk) 11:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Are Doctoral Theses considered reliable sources?

Hi all. An interesting conundrum came up at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ironclaw (2nd nomination). I found a doctoral theses published at NYU that relates to this AFD. Should it be considered reliable (since doctoral theses are peer reviewed by their faculty), and can it be used towards WP:SIGCOV? Thanks.4meter4 (talk) 20:45, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Doctoral theses are only considered reliable if they result in the awarding of a doctorate. They've been approved by the thesis adviser and possibly others. In addition, writings by PhD holders in their subject of expertise are typically considered reliable even if self-published, per WP:SPS. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 20:58, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

@Fiamh: Does this indicate that? [28].4meter4 (talk) 21:11, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

4meter4, I don't see any reason why not. Since he is now a lecturer, it's safe to assume that the thesis was accepted. Thesis review is more robust than many other academic peer review processes. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 21:18, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Acceptance of a dissertation or thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for awarding of a Doctorate of Philosophy (and some other doctoral degrees) shows that not only has the author added significantly to the sum of human knowledge in researching and writing the work, but has successfully defended the ideas in the document before a commitee of other scholars in the field of study. As Fiamh says, that process is usually more demanding and intellectually robust than peer review of research papers published in professional journals (one well-recognized example of reliable source for our articles). --loupgarous (talk) 10:08, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

In academic publishing we typically took the view that it was better to cite the journal articles vs the thesis when possible. Typically a thesis is comprised of work previously published in several journal articles. Thus typically you can cite the same author via their journal article (or conference article) on the same subject. While I agree it's harder to get a thesis published vs journal article, an individual journal article is going to be narrower in scope and thus the arguments within are more likely to be scrutinized more carefully. When considering cited by others journal articles are more likely to be cited vs a thesis. Finally, the thesis can be seen as a work that is created and published by a single university. The author and reviewers all being from the same institute (not always but in many cases). A journal article will have passed through the hands of uninvolved reviewers and an uninvolved publisher. Yes, there have been legitimate concerns about conflict of interest and bias etc but those issues are no different inside of the university vs out. As it relates to the question here, I would say first, we should try to find the underlying papers on which the thesis is based rather than citing the thesis. Second, I would generally consider a thesis to be expert opinion and then we have to look at the background of the author when deciding how much weight to apply to their opinions. Springee (talk) 13:27, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Is this a reliable source?

This was added to the People's Mujahedin of Iran:

"UK Border Agency describes MEK in a 2009 report as "cult-like terrorist organisation"".

This was the source used for this: [29]

It just doesn't look right to me, so brining it here for your comments. Barca (talk) 00:06, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• I don't see what's wrong with this source. It's a legitimate UK government website, and the UK government is a good source for its own views per WP:ABOUTSELF. Whether or not it's due weight to include is not a question for this noticeboard. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 00:32, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes. Additionally, I don't see why the official views of a major world power on a political organization would be WP:UNDUE. feminist (talk) 02:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Well regardless, the use of the source is off: The UK Border Agency isn't themselves describing the MEK as such in the document, they are quoting a report from the US State Department. 199.116.171.94 (talk) 07:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

If you look closely, the comment that they are a "cult-like terrorist organisation" is an interjection inserted by the the UK agency into the quote from the United States agency. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 07:20, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure that's the intent; in the USSD source the paragraph just above the one being quoted begins 'By mid-1982, the clergy had won a succession of post-Revolution power struggles that eliminated first the center of the political spectrum and then the leftists, including the communist Tudeh party and the cult-like terrorist organization Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK or MKO).' so I'm inclined to see it less as an interjection by the UKBA and rather a transposition of text to restore context to the acronym being used. 199.116.171.94 (talk) 07:48, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

should addictivetips dot com and privacyaustralia dot net be considered reliable sources?

The websites seem to be native advertising and sponsored content, and are cited in NordVPN as citations 19 and 22. Would (oldosfan) 03:36, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

NO.Slatersteven (talk) 13:06, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• Rather obviously not. Guy (help!) 13:11, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• About these two sites:
  • AddictiveTips is a group blog with a team of nine people. Most of their non-VPN content is of low quality, and AddictiveTips is at best marginally reliable for uncontroversial technology-related topics. AddictiveTips should not be used to establish notability. All of the content in AddictiveTips' VPN/Privacy section is sponsored content with calls to action, and should not be cited on Wikipedia. Everything under https://www.addictivetips.com/vpn/ should be blacklisted.
  • Privacy Australia is operated by a team of two people, only one of whom appears to be responsible for the site content. This alone makes Privacy Australia a self-published source, but the fact that the site is almost entirely composed of sponsored content with calls to action means that it should be blacklisted.

— Newslinger talk 03:53, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

A personal blog of a professional historian as a source for history articles

According to The Guardian, Nicolas Terry is a professional historian who studies modern Holocaust denial[30]. He collaborated with the Holocaust memorial museum; currently he is a senior lecturer at University of Exeter, and he has a personal blog where history related materials are published. Is this blog a reliable source for WP articles devoted to various aspects of the Holocaust and its denial?

This question is a continuation of the previous discussion, but, since the previous discussion is becoming too convoluted, I decided to ask this question separately. Users @Assayer, Aquillion, My very best wishes, The Four Deuces, Someguy1221, Paul Siebert, Nug, K.e.coffman, ZScarpia, and Darouet: are participants of this dispute, so I would be grateful to see the opinion of non-involved users.--Paul Siebert (talk) 03:36, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Can you provide links to his blog (which you want to cite) and the previous discussion? feminist (talk) 03:38, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Sure, forgot to add it. Added.--Paul Siebert (talk) 04:01, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Where is the previous discussion? feminist (talk) 13:22, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• No, the blog is not an RS, only Nicolas Terry can be. For example, this blog post by this anonymous user [31] is not an RS. But even if that were a post by Nicolas Terry, using the self-published source should be strongly discouraged. Anything significant by Nicolas Terry should be published in a better place, and especially on a controversial subject. My very best wishes (talk) 03:40, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• In general personal blogs are not reliable sources, irrespective of who the author is. -Ad Orientem (talk) 03:52, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

But, in specific, we do allow blogs written by experts (when writing about things in their field of expertise) Blueboar (talk) 13:32, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

@Ad Orientem: I am aware of that general rule, however, I am asking because self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. In my opinion, there is a possibility that Terry fits those criteria.--Paul Siebert (talk) 04:01, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes, a personal blog can be reliable for certain topics if it meets WP:SPS, although published sources are preferred. WP:IDONTLIKEIT does not override SPS. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 04:04, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

So it has been mentioned that this blog is not solely authored by Terry. There are several other contributors who seem to be pseudonymous. Is there a way to filter or search posts only by Terry? Can we have a reasonable level of confidence that Terry is the one using his named account? And does Terry share his byline or account with anyone else who might blog? I guess those criteria are WP:SPS 101. Yes, Terry's work might meet RS standards, but other contributors would need to be evaluated on their own merits, and since Blogger doesn't have blue check marks, we'll need to establish some way of knowing accounts actually belong to who they say they are. Elizium23 (talk) 09:50, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Good questions. Let's try to answer. As Paul tells, it is a continuation of this discussion. Hence, this is an account in question [32] who made this post. This is not Terry. What this blogger does? He cites Holocaust deniers [33] from the "The World's largest website for Historical Revisionism". He "forgets" about numerous reliable sources existing on this subject. He whitewashes crimes by the Stalinist regime. He has a Russian nickname. The bottom line: this is not Terry. My very best wishes (talk) 12:49, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

We can assume that any unsigned articles are either written by Terry or or are as good as written by him. TFD (talk) 19:39, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

We can? On what basis? Not trying to be argumentative I just don't see why anyone would make that assumption here. Fyddlestix (talk) 03:39, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes As per SPS his blog is an RS for his view, as long as they are attributed. But only his posts are RS, not anything else anyone posts there.Slatersteven (talk) 13:05, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

We also need to factor WP:Due Weight into the mix... he may be reliable, but still not worth citing. (Not giving an opinion on this case... just reminding people that reliability is not the only issue to discuss). Blueboar (talk) 13:32, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

True, buts its also a different issue.Slatersteven (talk) 13:42, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes, per WP:SPS, "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications." If we accept that Nicolas Terry is "an established expert on the subject matter" then his writing is considered reliable, however that only extends to writing he, himself authors, not writing by non-experts which happen to be published near his writing. It is only writing where he is the clear author this applies to. --Jayron32 14:07, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Limited: Only when "posted by" is Nicholas Terry, and where the contents is uncontroversial. Any controversial claim would require a peer- or editor-reviewed source. Guy (help!) 16:44, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Depends. The author seems to mix factual reporting and his own opinion quite liberally on his blog, so editors should be cautioned not to present his opinion as fact. He seems to have strong views on the topic (regardless of whether they are appropriate or not). I agree with JzG. feminist (talk) 17:37, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yes of course, as long as the author is an established expert as described above. As other editors have mentioned, posts written by other authors are not reliable, though I would add the caveat that if any other authors are themselves established experts, then their posts would also be acceptable. This isn't necessarily a strong source, but I also note that WP:PARITY is in effect with regards to Holocaust denial. As a result, without compelling reasons to the contrary (e.g. direct contradiction in the peer-reviewed literature), it can most likely be depended on to give the academic position on any claims related to Holocaust denial. Sunrise (talk) 18:47, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Yes Here is a link to a previous discussion. In this case the blog is being used to discredit one sentence in an otherwise reliable source about a Jewish Communist alleged to have created gas vans in the USSR. The story is popular in anti=Semitic literature but, other than this one source, is not cited in any other academic book at all. The author used as his source a tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda originally for Young Communists that now publishes anti-Semitic articles. (The narrative is that Nazi Germany did not gas any Jews, but the Jews gassed Ukrainians.) I think that this is a good case for "Exceptional claims require exceptional sources". TFD (talk) 19:39, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• No. I can't imagine what it would be used for in a topic so thoroughly covered by scholarly sources. For anything contentious, we need a peer-reviewed source. For any uncontentious, there will surely already be a peer-reviewed source. Can someone post an example of how the blog would be used and a link to the previous discussion? SarahSV ^(talk) 19:51, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
  • SarahSV, it is not thoroughly covered, see my comments above. TFD (talk) 21:23, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

SarahSV, I perfectly understand limitations of this source. The problem is that the topic ("Soviet gas vans") is not covered in scholarly literature at all. The only sources that cover this topic are Holocaust deniers writings, and that is analyzed in Terry's blog. I failed to find better sources.--Paul Siebert (talk) 22:45, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Paul, I'm having difficulty following this discussion. Can you link to the precise blog post you want to use as a source, and the edit it will support? SarahSV ^(talk) 01:08, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

SarahSV I mean this source. I myself do not think it is really good, but other sources writing about that subject are even worse: they are based either on non-verifiable testimonies, or on some Russian tabloid article published in 1990. --Paul Siebert (talk) 04:35, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Paul, thanks. You've linked to a blog post by Sergey Romanov. I don't know who that is. That's definitely not an RS unless you can show that he's an expert. It means this discussion is misleading, because you seemed to be asking whether Nicholas Terry was an RS if self-published, but in fact you're asking whether Sergey Romanov is. Which edit did you want to use that source to support? SarahSV ^(talk) 17:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

SarahSV, I know that the author of the post is not Terry, however, as far as understand, Terry is supposed to moderate his blog, so it seems the content of his blog is somewhat vetted by him.

I am going to use this blog to support the statement that the sensational claim about alleged invention and usage of has vans is cited by Holocaust deniers who question the fact of existence of Nazi gas vans (such as Alvarez). The fact that Alvarez questions the existence of German gas vans and cites the Soviet gas van story follows from his book, so this claim is not controversial, so it does not need an outstanding evidences. I do not think we should cite the Alvarez's book directly, because it is published by a publisher house that was established by a convicted Holocaust denier.--Paul Siebert (talk) 18:40, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Yes, it can be used for some things. If I understand the issue properly, this all relates to allegations that the Soviet Union used gas vans and some of the controversy surrounding that...? That entire aspect seems slightly WP:FRINGEy, in the sense that while sources exist, they're sharply lower-quality and lower-prominence than the ones discussing the usage by Nazis. For more obscure subjects like this (where few high-profile mainstream scholars have weighed in), I feel it is appropriate to rely on what we can get - the opinion of an established scholar like Terry, even posted via WP:SPS, seems important to include if we're going to discuss such an obscure aspect at all. --Aquillion (talk) 21:20, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Depends This blog not only deals with Holocaust denial, it even engages with deniers’ arguments. Not many historians do that, for obvious reasons: Holocaust denial is not to be taken seriously. Arguments with Holocaust deniers simply are not the kind of material which would be published as a book. Irving v Penguin Books Ltd is a rare exception. The blog (and a different post by Romanov) have been cited by RS (historical scholarship). I take notice that the one user who preaches that we simply do not know what other sources the historians could use[34] is certain that Romanov "forgets" about numerous reliable sources existing on this subject. He whitewashes crimes by the Stalinist regime. That’s simply unfounded.--Assayer (talk) 23:53, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
• Comment. Per WP:SPS, Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. OK, but who is author of the post in question [35]? Someone called "Sergey Romanov" [36]. Is it even real name of the person? And even if it is real, what kind of expert he is? My very best wishes (talk) 23:56, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• Based on their last comment [37], Paul started this entire thread just to discredit a reliable primary source (the book by Petro Grigorenko, it was cited in a lot of other books [38] and scholarly literature), along with claims by a number of other secondary RS, using another source, a blog by an unknown person that he knew was not an RS. And his logic is misleading. Whatever Holocaust deniers could cite is simply irrelevant. My very best wishes (talk) 22:09, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Welllll... I guess not. First of all, Nicholas Terry. As to notability, in the sense that we want to say "According to Nicholas Terry...", let's see... Nicholas Terry is not bluelinked and probably isn't eligible yet, having written only one book ("Auschwitz: The Practice of Extinction") which isn't published yet, and he's a lecturer rather than a professor. We don't give just anybody standing to be quoted that way... We don't quote just any random university lecturer. "Is a professional historian" (in the sense that he makes his living as a history teacher) also applies to the your 11th grade history teacher, and we have to have a line somewhere. Terry has a PhD and has written a book and has other markers of notability, so he might be sufficiently notable to quote, but he's on the bubble anyway.

As far his reliability for statements of fact, no, probably not. He doesn't appear to have a sufficient corpus that we can say "well, here is a guy with a sterling reputation for sufficient expertise, attention to detail, and lack of bias that we can take most anything he writes to the bank". For all I know his book will be reviewed in the manner of "Sparks gets many of his facts wrong...".

As far as what he himself writes in his blog, its pretty much as good as what he might write in his book: neither is independently fact checked (probably; when the book comes out we can see if he credits a fact checker (unlikely)). That's not a deal-killer necessarily, if Terry himself is sufficiently reliable. But he's not, IMO.

As to stuff written at that blog by anyone other than Terry, heck no. The third entry on the front page is titled "Yet another Holocaust-denying terrorist" and opens with "Meet a typical low-intelligence chan loser scum, Stephan Balliet...". We can't go near stuff like that of course, and really it colors the entire publication (blog or whatever you want to call it) and kind of implies that its editors are either biased or insufficiently in control. Terry's association with a publication like that is not a good marker that he can be securely trusted to not cherry-pick or even twist facts. (He probably doesn't, but "probably" is kind of a low bar for introducing statements of fact to the Wikipedia.)

Taken all together, no, I don't think we can consider Terry, by himself and publishing in a non-fact-checked venue, as a reliable source at this time. As and if his academic career advances, that may change. Herostratus (talk) 12:47, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Only with attribution; there is no scholarly editorial control that would be present in the journal process or from an academic press. It cannot be used as source for material in WP voice. Cambial Yellowing(❧) 22:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

You mean with attribution to "Sergey Romanov" who authored this blog post (and possibly has a different name in real life) or to "Nicholas Terry" who possibly has no idea about this blog post? My very best wishes (talk) 22:40, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Paul asked this question about the blog in general, not a specific post. I replied on the same basis. Attribution means "ascribing a work or remark to a particular author" and I meant exactly what I wrote. Cambial Yellowing(❧) 22:45, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Looking at some of the additional questions which have arisen, the question of notability of an individual to whom a text is attributed arises. Terry may be notable in whatever very specific specialism he has published in, and therefore his posts relating to that area worth inclusion. Whoever Sergey Romanov is, and if that is the real subject of this discussion, unless it can be shown otherwise he appears to be totally inconsequential, and therefore not sufficiently notable to include his views on any subject. Cambial Yellowing(❧) 22:59, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Thank you! OK, but simply looking at the blog, I do not see a single post by Terry. My very best wishes (talk) 00:13, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

• Generally no; @Paul Siebert: unfortunately I think you've incorrectly assessed the nature of the blog. According to the blog's introductory post back in 2006 by Nicolas Terry, he was only one of the founding collaborators ("I hope to dedicate some of my postings to this collective blog to discussing", "The contributors here met online at the RODOH forum"). [39]. Its also unclear to me how much involvement Terry still has with the blog; the most recent post he made seems to be from 2016 and he doesn't seem to have been contributing regularly even then (unfortunately I cant find a way to search by author). Posts that he personally made may be RSs, but I don't see any indication he exercises control over the other contributors' work. -RaiderAspect (talk) 00:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
• Comment Is this the same noticeboard which just vetted an eyewitness account related through an interview by a third person published as a transcript ("novel of evidence") of a documentary in a literary quarterly? We don't quote just any random university lecturer. Why? Is his work too scholarly, maybe? Ok, he co-edited a volume on genocide denial for Routledge, which seems too make him less reliable than memoirs by former NKVD officers. He has published with Yad Vashem Studies, which is certainly less reliable than some Crimean local newspaper. The few times I consulted RSN before, amateur historians, i.e. authors with no professional expertise in history, who never studied history, let alone held a degree in history, and who published with the most specialist and small publishing houses, even indulged in self-publishing, were routinely considered to be perfect RS. You know, these authors provided information so special that it could not be found in mainstream historical scholarship, so it must have been reliable. In other words, there is anything but a standard by which RS are evaluated at RSN and that's a problem. If the reliability of the blog posts is to be assessed, these posts have to be compared to the findings of established historical scholarship. It can't be done by a simple thumbs up or down after superficially looking at the credentials of the author. And if the blog has been approvingly cited by historical scholarship, as it has been, that's a strong sign for reliability.--Assayer (talk) 01:00, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Oh yes, the publication by well known author Lipkov (although he wrote books in a different subject area) who cited other experts (like Golovkova) in Kontinent is a lot better source than a post by an anonymous account on a blog. It does not mean that Lipkov is telling The Truth. It only means the source can be used per WP:RS. My very best wishes (talk) 01:15, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

For those of us who have only just tuned into this saga, could you link to the approving citation Assayer? --RaiderAspect (talk) 01:37, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

• In general blog posts by an established expert can be reliable sources per WP:SPS, yes. But the specific source under discussion here seems to be this, and it is not written by an established expert, and is therefore emphatically not a RS. It's just a blog post written by... someone, who we don't seem to have any info on. Not sure why we're even talking about Nicholas Terry and SPS when there's no indication that he's the author of the piece in question. Fyddlestix (talk) 03:54, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

@RaiderAspect: The story Assayer is talking about is described here, and its brief summary is as follows. Several secondary sources mention a story of a Soviet gas van that was used during the Great Purge. This story is based on one NKVD document that was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1990. In addition to that, a couple of books exist where non-verifiable testimonies are reproduced, which tell about similar events in two Russian cities. In addition, we have an article in a local newspaper that was authored by a writer with unknown credentials. Of course, from the formal point of view, an newspaper article or a book are RS, according to our policy. However, as Assayer is correctly arguing, the article published in a local Ukrainian newspaper, which is authored by some unknown author seems much less trustworthy than the post in a personal blog of a professional historian who worked with Holocaust Memorial, and who is a history lecturer in a high rank British University. The same can be said about the book that uncritically reproduces some non-verifiable testimonies (actually, a memoir of a person who happened to hear a story told by a witness of alleged usage of Soviet gas van).

Please, understand me correctly: I myself prefer not to use blogs of that type, the problem is that that blog, which seem to be maintained and moderated by a professional historian, looks much more trustworthy, in terms of fact checking and accuracy, than such "reliable sources" as non-verifiable testimonies or an obscure local newspaper. The fact that the first type source does not fit our RS criteria, whereas the second type sources do means that something is fundamentally wrong either with our policy or with the way it is being implemented.--Paul Siebert (talk) 04:57, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

• No, the story is not "based on one NKVD document that was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1990". Not at all. This is WP:OR at best. "The article published in a local Ukrainian newspaper, which is authored by some unknown author seems much less trustworthy than the post in a personal blog of a professional historian". No, it is precisely another way around. An article published (not self-published) by well known Russian historian [40] in newspaper is a lot more reliable source per WP:RS than a blog post by unknown person. I am really surprised that Paul continue arguing otherwise. My very best wishes (talk) 15:24, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
• I also think that anything related to the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi at the Soviet territory (where the gas vans were used by Nazi), is covered by the topic ban for Paul [41]. Therefore, this entire posting is actually a topic ban violation by him. This is a request to evaluate the blog by "Nicolas Terry is a professional historian who studies modern Holocaust denial", etc. He asks about using this source, which is about the gas vans by Nazi (It starts from, "In their crusade against anything Nazi gas chamber-related, deniers use the hyper-skeptical approach:", etc.) My very best wishes (talk) 16:05, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

As with too many of these discussions on this board, this discussion is spinning. Please follow the form set out at the top of this page; 1) What is the content you want in what article? 2) What is the source? If it is a blog post, post the exact url of the blog post. Thanks. Alanscottwalker (talk) 16:24, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

• The content is as follows:

"The Soviet gas van story, in particular, Grigirenko's memoirs and Berg's case, is used by Holocaust deniers".

• The source is [this blog post.

--Paul Siebert (talk) 17:16, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Is NewsGram.com reliable

Is NewsGram.com reliable so that it can be used in a BLP article? Recently added in this though it doesn't serve any purpose as of now. If it is reliable, then some important things in the Wiki article can be sourced from it. The editor-in-chief is some Munish Raizada [42], his twitter handle. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 15:23, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The Times of India describes the Editor in Chief thusly: [43] He's described there as a medical practitioner and sociopolitical activist. All of the articles are either republications of articles originally printed elsewhere, or have bylines of "Newsgram desk". I can find no list of employed or free-lance journalists that work with them, I can find no editorial staff, nothing. That does not have the hallmarks of a reliable source. --Jayron32 16:46, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Smacks of SPS, no not an RS.Slatersteven (talk) 08:17, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Non peer-reviewed pre-print version of scientific paper

I have a question regarding this paper (linked below) by the geneticist Iosif Lazaridis. It seems to be a preprint, and I wondered whether this means it is not a reliable source (since that means it has not yet been peer-reviewed) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/423079v1.full Thank you. Skllagyook (talk) 17:35, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

I hope you don't mind; I changed the section title to a more descriptive one in hopes of attracting more participation. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:05, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Skllagyook, If the paper is eventually published in some form, the preprint can almost certainly be cited. Obviously, it's preferable to cite the published paper but most academics would be considered experts for the purpose of WP:SPS anyway. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 22:13, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Fiamh, Thank you. I do not think the paper is reviewed yet (I cannot find a non-preprint version), but I would assume it will be and will be published in that form eventually. And it is by (among others) a pretty prominent and well-regarded population geneticist - Iosif Lazaridis - (whose other papers are cited elsewhere here). So is it ok to cite it even if it has not yet been published in non-preprint form? (I have just added it as a ref on two pages, but if it is not acceptable, I will, of course, remove the new material.) Thank you again. Skllagyook (talk) 22:57, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Skllagyook, checking what you cited it for I'm not sure this is a good idea. This is a new scientific finding that hasn't been peer reviewed or confirmed. I would hold off until Lazaridis publishes it. What I would do is remove the content from the article and copy it to the talk page so that it can be re-added if/when it is confirmed. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 23:15, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Fiamh, May I ask why it is not a good idea (since you had said earlier that sources from academics were acceptable)? Would it help if my additions to the pages summarized it in a somewhat shorter form with a bit less detail? Skllagyook (talk) 23:33, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Skllagyook, as I understand WP:SPS, it was more intended for general comments by experts on their subjects of expertise, rather than new findings. But it's possible that other editors have a different perspective on the guideline. Fiamh ^{(talk, contribs)} 23:55, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Fiamh, I see. Should I then wait for the opinions of other editors (to be added here) as well? Skllagyook (talk) 23:57, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

As a non-reviewed paper, which is what it is in this form, I would treat it as the opinion of the author(s). Having been through this process, a submitted paper might be accepted without change (Yay!), accepted with revisions, rejected pending revisions or outright rejected. If rejected the final paper that results from teh work may be significantly different than the pre-review work. The correct thing to do is wait until the paper is released before using it. Springee (talk) 01:10, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

As its not been published or peer reviewed it is just his opinion, it may be RS if he is a recognized expert in the field (note, not just someone who works in it).Slatersteven (talk) 08:17, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• Per WP:NODEADLINE, if it has not yet been properly reviewed and published but will be at some point, then there's no rush to cite it or to add any text to Wikipedia yet which does cite it. Why the rush? Wait until it's been reviewed and published, and then cite it. --Jayron32 14:50, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• We ought to consider just how extraordinary the claims made in a pre-print scientific or scholarly jounal are when evaluating its reliability.The controversy surrouding Felisa Wolfe-Simon's announcement she and her group had found a bacterium that used arsenate instead of phosphate in its nucleotides shows the danger of relying on pre-prints and other non-peer reviewed reports for our articles.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof". It's worth waiting for at the very least peer-review of such reports. Science, in fact, did publish Wolfe-Simon's paper, but then later carried reports by researchers who had been unable to duplicate the results she reported independently. The current consensus is that the work Wolfe-Simon reported was procedurally flawed, accounting for the lack of independent confirmation by other groups. We're an encyclopedia, and our readers aren't looking for breaking news, but verifiable information. --loupgarous (talk) 23:58, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Original historical documents and historians who ignore it

Question asked earlier so I ask it here too. If original historical document in a village mentioned Vlachs(15th, 16th, 17th century) and historian in the book states that in same village(15th, 16th, 17th century) live Germans, Croats or Serbs (it is not important), what do I do? Formally his claim is proof and the book is proof for Wikipedia article but according to original historical data in that village live Vlachs not Germans etc. It means that historian does not base his claim on original historical records. He could say that Chinese live in that village and this is proof for Wikipedia article. So i'm interested how to dispute that false quote and delete it from the article although this was said in the book by a historian who apparently liedMikola22 (talk) 19:01, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Obviously, historians should be trusted, and the original document should not. There is a special discipline, Source criticism, whose aim is to establish how each concrete source should be interpreted. In general, it would be correct to assume that by default every historical document is lying, for each document was written not for usage by future Wikipedians, but to meet some practical goals, or to convey some idea (which may be unknown to us). In addition, some terms may change, so literal interpretation of sources may lead to serious mistakes. Thus, taking into account that the concept of nations or nationality was not existing during that time, it is quite likely that what we currently see as Vlachs (ancestors of modern Romanians, if I understand correctly) has no relation to those time Vlachs, because in XV century, any subject of Wallachian monarch was considered a Vlach (independent on their ethnicity). Therefore, any interpretation of primary sources may be performed only by professionals.--Paul Siebert (talk) 19:26, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• The first thing you should do is look to see what OTHER historians say. Do they discuss the Vlach in village? If so, perhaps you can cite them. If none of them mention the Vlach, you need to ask why they don’t? Ask the historians. It may be that they are aware of your document, but consider it flawed for some reason. Or it may be that you have discovered a document that no one was aware of before. In which case you will have to wait for a historian to evaluate it and write a history of the village that incorporates that new document. The one thing you can not do is cite the document in WP yourself, as that would be ORIGINAL RESEARCH... which is not allowed (see WP:No original research. Blueboar (talk) 19:52, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Friends this is a very serious situation. I give an example, in Croatia Vlachs are historically mentioned and today they are Serbs and to a lesser extent Croats. Ivic Aleksa, Serbian historian (Budjanovci, 23rd XII. 1881 - Belgrade, 23rd XI. 1948). In his book he does not notice these original Vlachs, and he writes about them as Serbs. Mirko Valentić; Institute for Contemporary History, Zagreb, Croatia, states in the book "On the Ethnic Root of Croatian Bosnian Serbs""Because archival material, with few exceptions, gives the researcher only the Vlach name, A. lvic, retelling the archives, simply there where it says Vlachs reads a Serbs. Having found in the archival material a large number of writings for Catholics Vlachs ie descendants of the ancient Croatian Vlachs: Bunjevci, Morlaci and others, he would also declare these as Vlachs Serbs by calling them • Serbs of the Catholic faith. " Writing about the attempt to free Lika from which the Vlachs commit violence and crimes by Central Croatia, penetrating into the depths of Carniola, lvic suggests to his reader that the Austrian Archduke had ordered the“ expulsion of the Serbs from Lika. " The original document reads "[... ] Abtreibung der neu angesessnem Walachen in der Likha [...]. "24 The same procedure was applied by Gomirje Vlachs, which A. lvić reads as "Gomirje Serbs", although the archival file contains "Wallachen zu Goymerie" .25 He treats the well-known Vlachs villages of Dubrava and Ponikve in the Ogulin area as well. lvic writes: "The Serbian places of Dubrava and Ponikva, where the Serbs lived." In the original document reads • [...] die in dem Dorff Dubrau und Ponique wohnende Wallachen [...]. "26 The lawsuit of Žumberak Vlachs from Marindol in 1668 is presented by Ivic as a lawsuit by" Serbs from Marindol ", although the original file states: • [...] die Walachen zu Marienthall beclagen sich [...]. "27 Forgery of this kind is roped in every page of Ivic's book. Here are only some examples randomly selected" This is a quote from a Croatian historian. Therefore it is a forgery of history and how to delete those sources from Wikipedia?Mikola22 (talk) 20:13, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

One thing to keep in mind is that just because a document is old does not mean that the content is correct. Humans of the past were not significantly better than we are today, they did have their own views and biases, and they may have their own misconceptions or conventions. That why we don't typically use primary sources - it needs experts to evaluate and interpret them. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:02, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

• It may be some kind of nationalism-biased (flawed) historiography (so common in this region). However, our "rules" for reliable sources are clear, using our own interpretation of this primary source would be an original research. As written above, we need another historian to balance this POV (preferably someone outside of this region). Pavlor (talk) 05:47, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Addendum: I see the problamatic work is quite old (published before 1948). I would not take anything so old (and from this very region!!!) related to nationalism, ethnicity etc. as a reliable source. For start, you may tag this source as unreliable (which it is for this kind of content) and then replace it with better source (preferably NOT Croatian, but it may be a hard task to find a non-local source for such information). Pavlor (talk) 06:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

This(old sources, books) is the basis for recent Serbian historiography or new books. Serbian new books generally have background in old writers. To be understood in the Balkans each country has its own history and Croats probably have some mythical historians(what I read mostly references to historical sources but there is probably some mythomania as well) but Serbian historians and books are twilight zone. When comparing their history to the original documents it is different as heaven and earth. But Wikipedia is being read all over the world therefore reference should be based on original historical documents. In this case Serbian false history is like created for Wikipedia. They just write(historians) the book and this is relevant proof for Wikipedia although the original data for some of the facts in that book says otherwise. Mikola22 (talk) 11:01, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

You don't understand the problem, Serbian historians do not prove that Vlachs are Serbs. They consider Croatian Vlachs as Serbs without any major evidence. A good part of the Croatian population(Croats) are mentioned in the records as Vlachs. Proving something on Wikipedia with claims of Serbian historians it actually proves that these Croats are actually of Serbian origin without any evidence. Vlachs are neither Serbs nor Croats(and it is undeniable) but for Serbian history Vlachs are Serbs because it is their national interest and they can claim it in their own country but this is Wikipedia which is read all over the world. Here is another example from an article on Stokavian Croatian dialect:"By far the most numerous, mobile and expansionist migrations were those of Ijekavian-Shtokavian speakers of eastern Herzegovina, who have spread into most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and western Bosnia, large swathes of Croatia (Banovina, Kordun, Lika, parts of Gorski kotar, continental parts of northern Dalmatia, some places north of Kupa, parts of Slavonia, southeastern Baranya etc.) We do not have any known historical document that says that someone is migrating from eastern Herzegovina to 60% of Croatian area but that claims ""Okuka, Miloš (2008), Srpski dijalekti, SDK Prosvjeta" linguist Okuka Milos (there is no evidence in his book either). That's exactly what I'm talking about, Serbian historians and linguists have their own history that is not in the historical documents but his book is proof on Wikipedia about some kind of famous migration. But that article is read by people in the world who do not know situation on the ground and might think that really someone comes from eastern Herzegovina to Croatia. Did anyone migrate from eastern Herzegovina to Croatia probably yes but these are smaller groups of people who cannot inhabit 60% of Croatia(the only major migrations(historical records) are towards Dubrovnik area and Venetian area along the Adriatic coast) Therefore we cannot allow someone's private history(Serbian historians and linguists) or allow their false history as relevant evidence on Wikipedia. And that is why I ask what concretely to do in that case?Mikola22 (talk) 06:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Well, I have some experience with ethno-nationalistic POV-pushing in historiography (Czech-German). As I wrote, remove very old sources (worthless in this case) and if you can´t find a "neutral" source, simply add a reliable source from the Croatian side of the dispute to balance POV in the article(s). In best case, there would be a major scholarly research outside of this region, which could show us what is a fringe opinion in this field of study. Pavlor (talk) 08:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

What are these documents, who owns and has access to them, and how old are they?Slatersteven (talk) 08:14, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

On which documents you think? If you think of original historical documents (16th, 17th, 18th centurie) that mention Vlachs there are many. If you think about the documents that prove migration of someone from eastern Herzegovina there is some information for Dubrovnik area and Venetian area along the Adriatic coast. It is a factual situation. However reading Serbian historians and linguists we have fictional situation. And that's the problem because Wikipedia doesn't deal with factual evidence for Wikipedia a statement by a historian from some book is relevant evidence.Mikola22 (talk) 08:40, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

So is every historian who has written about this Serbian? Are there literally no other historians who have covered this topic? Interpreting centuries old primary documents is really far outside the realm of what editors should be doing. The fact is, unless you're literally talking about a historian who has misquoted an easily verifiable document, this sort of thing is not trivial. Editors are assumed to be in no position to assess (unless he states explicitly) why a historian's account of something seems to differ from available primary documents. Perhaps those documents are misleading. Perhaps they need to be interpreted in a specific context. Perhaps there are other documents painting a different picture. Perhaps there is a sort of academic language barrier between what the historian is saying and what the editor thinks the historian means. Aside from the last one, insofar as we might discuss whether the historian himself has been misinterpreted by editors, these are questions we are supposed to avoid discussing.

So for ways forward, I'd ask again, are there other historians who discuss these issues? Alternatively, are there reliable sources that cast doubt on whether these historians are reliable? Have they been called out by other historians for making things up? Someguy1221 (talk) 10:45, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Let’s go with logical thinking. Serbs allegedly are fleeing from the Turks in Turkish times. Croatian historian claims this "The second portion of the article deals with the Turkish conquests in Croatia and with the geography of the Balkan Vlachs enclaves from the Drava River to the Adriatic, since the Turkish colonization is followed by that of Austria which from the second part of the 16th to the end of the 17th centuries brought Vlachs from the Turkish Empire to the lands of the Croatian Kingdom." You don't need any historical document to understand that they are not the same people. If the Serbs are fleeing from the Turks then Turks cannot colonize them. Croatian historian claims and this "The Church had the most decisive role in the serbization process of Vlachs in the initial and middle phases; in the final phase, the most significant role was played by the newspaper Srbobran in the 80's and 90's of the 19th century. On the basis of the preceding analysis, the author concludes that present day Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia ethnically do not make part of the Serb nation." Why he established this in his scholarly work? Because we have no historical data that Serbs come to Croatia nor we have data that someone migrates from Serbia to Croatia(western Slavonia to Dubrovnik area). This is factual truth of which I talking about. Serbs have their own national interests but with that interest they penetrate into the origin of the Croatian population which is referred as Vlachs in the historical records and which speaks Stohkavian dialect same as today's Serbs. That is the problem and that is why we must go from the source.Mikola22 (talk) 11:34, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Looking for modern language-based ethno/religious-identities in early modern sources is a recipe for disaster... Pavlor (talk) 12:23, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, this is the biggest problem, on the bases of language or dialect some historian determine someone's origin and not based on historical records who talk about these peoples. That's why I'm interested what to do in that situations.Mikola22 (talk) 12:44, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Well using the OP as a starting point. I can say that in my Town live some English people, that does not mean they are the only people that live there. So I go back to my question, what are these sources, who owns them, and why have they be ignored up till now (and how come you have found them when 100's of historians have not?Slatersteven (talk) 13:32, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

These documents are constantly in existence but they are interpreted by Serbian historiography through their national interest. There are Serbs(Croats, Bulgarians,Albanians etc) among Vlachs but we cannot consider all Vlachs to be Serbs and write books about them which are proofs on Wikipedia, it's as if all Americans would be English because they speak English that's Serbian historian logic. Unfortunately this is relevant evidence and how to challenge that evidence? These are books.Mikola22 (talk) 16:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

True, but we would need a source to say "they were not English", rather then us saying "they must not have been". I think it is clear form this your documents use the term Vlach which you are interpreting to include a specific group based upon no other evidence than assumption. Thus this is wp:or.Slatersteven (talk) 16:31, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

If I understand the OP correctly, mentioned source(s) are known, but their interpretation (who are "Vlachs") is disputed (Serbs vs Croats). There may be (I hope) reliable sources from outside of this region. Until these are found, I think best course of action would be to use only recent academic production (not nearly 100 years old works!) from both Serbia and Croatia to balance the article POV. Pavlor (talk) 13:44, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, if that is the case, I agree. Given that a name does not tell us anything really unless there is a clear and unequivocal meaning to that name is fraught with OR risks.Slatersteven (talk) 13:49, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Vlach would mean neither Serb nor Croats. Vlachs is an out of use term for Romance (Latin derived) speaking people: distinct from Germanic or Slavic (Serbo-Croatian).Eostrix (talk) 13:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

The situation is even more complex. Thus, Eugene A. Hammel from University of California analyzed medieval Serbian censuses of 14th century and concluded: "The evidence suggests that subgroup differences were more ecological or situational than strictly ethnic and that the Vlachs were simply Serbs in a pastoral mode." And: "The dual meaning persists in modern usage, some Vlachs so-called because of their presumed Romanian origins, others because of their pastoral economy." --Nicoljaus (talk) 15:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

You should not determine who the “Vlachs” are in the original historical document yourself, because this is not an easy task (see for example:Vlach law)--Nicoljaus (talk) 14:09, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

The latest forgery. Here's an explanation for deleting that quote from the article I quote "Forgery, in the article is states I quote "A letter of Emperor Ferdinand, sent on 6 November 1538, to Croatian ban Petar Keglević, in which he wrote "Captains and dukes of the Rasians, or the Serbs, or the Vlachs, who are commonly called the Serbs." In the book(Povijest Hrvata od najstarijih vremena do svršetka XIX. stoljeća (History of the Croats, 1899–1922)) of Vjekoslav Klaić[9] Croatian historian is cited original document from year 1538. as follows "te in hoc, quod capitanei et woyvode Rasciani sive Servian! atque Valachi, quos vulgo Zytschy (Cici) vocant, cum eorum subditis et adherentibus fidem devotionemque erga nos amplexi iam nunc ad loca ditionemque nostram commigrarunt et bona eorum omnia mobilia salva transportaverint, sedulam promptamque operam una cum ceteris navasse ac non vulgare adiumentum, quo id facilius fieret, per te allatum fuisse [10]

This means that in the original document are mention "Rascians or Serbians and Vlachs" not as is quoted in the article by a Serbian historian "Rascians or Serbians or Vlachs" who are commonly called the Zytschy (ĆiĆi) not as Serbian historian states "who are commonly called the Serbs" Since this is a lie and a forgery of history I suggest deleting it from the article What would you do if you noticed a forgery?Mikola22 (talk) 15:07, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Mikola22, please tell me, did we talk with you on this topic? There, the IP-user subscribed as "mikola".--Nicoljaus (talk) 21:29, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

It was me.Mikola22 (talk) 05:02, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Again, in a situation when the only available sources are (i) the historical document, and (ii) the old book published by some Serbian author, formally speaking, you cannot unilaterally decide that the book (a secondary source) is wrong, and the primary source is correct.

If you believe we are dealing with nationalistic falsification of history (which may be quite possible), it is possible to do the following: you can try to find sources that question the approach of Serbian historiography to the description of those times events in that region. That may serve as a ground for removal of that source.

A second opportunity is to explicitly attribute this statement to the source, something like: "according to 1940s Serbian sources .... ". That would clarify that the statement reflects not a generally accepted views, but some local (and, probably, outdated) viewpoint.

If you are not disputing a Serbian claim to support a Croatian claim, but your real desire is to combat local nationalistic views (which are, obviously, wrong, no matter who is pushing them), the most unbeatable approach would be to avoid a discussion of ethnonational issues as much as possible: in reality, no Serbian or Croatian nations existed during that time, so it would be more correct to speak about population, their language, religion, social structure etc. IMO, this is a universal approach to resolving this type problems.--Paul Siebert (talk) 16:34, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Except that is not an original document, it is a book published in 1981, and claiming to be an accurate version of that document. It may not be a lie, the other source maybe, they both maybe.Slatersteven (talk) 16:35, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

It is interesting that those Rascians or Serbs who speak Ćići language mention and Romanian sources "istroromnii, atestai ncepnd din secolul al XVI-lea sub numele de Cici i ... sive Serviani atque Valachi quos vulgo Zytschy vocant).51 Oricum" Only Serbs historians have their own way of interpreting original document, that's why I'm saying it's a forgery and that there is no place on Wikipedia for such evidenceMikola22 (talk) 17:03, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Frankly that is not what you said, you asked "If original historical document in a village mentioned Vlachs", that is clearly not what you are now what you are talking about. What you are now talking about is different (modern) interpretations of one document. Thus (again frankly) the whole basis of this question was flawed from the start (yes I am being generous). No your source does not trump the other or prove it is a fraud, as best we would have both claims in the article (which one?).Slatersteven (talk) 17:09, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

I didn't understand you? From Dubrovnik to western Slavonia or in 70% of Croatian teritory Vlachs are mentioned. There are hundreds of records that mention Vlachs and two or three that mention Serbs. That Vlachs(not Serbs or Croats) later became mostly Serbs and a lesser extent Croats. What does this(that today they are Serbs or Croats) have to do with their original origin. And Illyrians are Croats today because we probably assimilated them however we cannot claim that Illyrians were originally Croatians. Serbs throughout national history ignore fact that Vlachs were not originally Serbs, thus they clame that all Vlachs and even Croats that originating from Vlachs are Serbian origin. But Vlachs are not Serbs. Serbian historians in historical sources where the Vlachs are mention they read as they are Serbs and that is proof on Wikipedia. So I ask for advice on what to do? What Vlachs have to do with Serbia or Serbians. At that time when Vlachs are mentioned in Serbia they are also mentioned in Croatia, Romania, Albania, Greece etc. So they are not all Serbs because they are also mentioned in Serbia. Do you know who are Vlachs?Mikola22 (talk) 18:44, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

We have given our advice... when two sources disagree, look for OTHER sources. Give more weight to those written by scholars from outside the Balkans (who are less likely to be emotionally involved in the ethno-political squabbles of the area). Blueboar (talk) 19:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

References

Jihad Watch, the Middle East Forum and "Global muslim brotherhood daily watch" in articles about Islam

We describe the first as an anti-Muslim conspiracy blog. Our article on the Middle East Forum is a bit equivocal but doesn't fill me with confidence, and I'm surprised that we call its founder Daniel Pipes an historian (yes, he once taught history, but that's not what he's known for - he's mainly a major critic of Islam). Global MB Watch is a one man band run by Steven Merley who worked for Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation whose senior consultant now is Evan Kohlmann and was evidently, according to his description of himself[44] the subject of praise by John Ware (TV journalist), described by the Guardian as "not quite public enemy number one for many British Muslims -"[45].

These sources are used in articles such as Wahhabism, Hani Ramadan and numerous others.[46][47][48] Doug Weller talk 14:08, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

MEF after 2009 become peer reviewed and have editorial control yes its partisan but we allow partisan sources per WP:BIASED --Shrike (talk) 14:11, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

The objection is not to partisanship. MEF, and the organizations it funds, actively foment Islamophobia, there is a long record through all of the venues it establishes and supports, and via all of the funding groups behind it, of militant antipathy as a driving force in a publicitarian cause. I don't think we should make an exception here. If MEF figures on a respectable site listing hate groups (Southern Poverty Law Center) as it does here, then it should not be used on Wikipedia. We have huge resources from Academic, government think tanks etc. on all of these Islamic movements. The latter are often problematical, qua partisan, but they have no stepped over into financing fear and fomenting anti-Islamism as the MEF does.Nishidani (talk) 16:56, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

I would be concerned if we were using Jihad Watch as an authority on Muslim subjects, but from glancing at the internal search results, all of the citations that I saw were specifically citing it to support claims about the activities and opinions of anti-Muslim academics, which seems potentially acceptable. I haven't reviewed the other sources at this time. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 18:07, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

We don't use blogs, let alone conspiracy blogs, which is how Jihad Watch is described. This is every more so given its decidedly polemical anti-Muslim world view. Sensitive topics require optimal sourcing. Nishidani (talk) 20:26, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

We should not be using blogs at all, as Nishidani said. Furthermore some of these sources look pretty clearly like WP:FRINGE outlets and they should not generally be used as sources. Simonm223 (talk) 12:00, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Fair enough. I'd agree that these look like fringe outlets. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 17:09, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Not so sure this is reliable

While I was gnoming today, I saw User:Autismfacts. I noticed his first contribution was using primary sources so I removed it and left him a polite note explaining why this was reverted. It looks like he read the note and then added this contribution in. I looked at the webpage, and it really looks like it too may be non reliable. I checked here and didn't see it mentioned, so I figured I see what you all thought. Is that website reliable ? Necromonger...We keep what we kill 14:51, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Primary sources are perfectly acceptable so long as a person does not do any outside-of-the-source analysis. As near as I can tell, in your first diff, the source is only being used to verify a paraphrase and a quote, which is by definition is without analysis. A primary source is reliable for directly stating what is printed in itself. For example, if I said "The source XXXX states that "the Sky is blue", as long as those words are actually printed in that source, the statement is accurate and is correctly cited to the source that uses those words. That's a fine use of a primary source. It would not be a good source for stating in Wikipedia's voice, without direct attribution "The Sky is blue", and neither is it a source for stating "Because the Sky is blue, all of these other things must also be true". But for the simple matter of providing an attribution for a quote, it's fine to cite a primary source. --Jayron32 15:15, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

there is always the possibility of selective quotation. A group might publish a report, and not really liking the conclusions, then publish a summary or excerpt from it that is unfair or unrepresentative or presented in a biased context. We arre very carlessless in general in accepting quotations. DGG ( talk ) 16:22, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Possible COI & Sock puppet by user JIROT

The WP:COI page states to report possible COI cases here. I noticed that user:JIROT is a single-purpose editor involved in 2 articles:

• He created a biography on Richard M. Weiner - (I just cleaned up quite a bit of promotional language and Peacock terms in there.)
• Persistent introduction & reverts of a non-peer-reviewed paper by Richard M. Weiner ‎at Dark matter. User JIROT fails to explain why this unpublished hypothesis is notable for inclusion.
  

I placed a COI tag at the mentioned biography and at his Talk page [49]. I do not know how to proceed further, so I'll leave this "on your desk". Thank you. Rowan Forest (talk) 15:12, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

I also noticed that he may have a possible sock puppet: User:Gigigogo that created the article Hot spot effect in subatomic physics within days of creating Richard M. Weiner, where he also promotes Richard M. Weiner. Rowan Forest (talk) 15:24, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

• I've warned him about edit warring; otherwise I think this is currently a "monitor and see what happens" situation. --Jayron32 15:26, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
• Hi Rowan Forest, in the future, you might want to report conflict of interest issues to Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard (WP:COIN). The editors who frequent that noticeboard tend to be more familiar with COI and sockpuppetry in article editing. — Newslinger talk 03:19, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

OK, I thank you all. Rowan Forest (talk) 13:11, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Movie Chambers and One Guys Opinion

I came across this website while looking for film reviews for an article, and it seems that while the sole reviewer there, Paul Chambers, has been creating film reviews since '86 for different news orgamizations (CNN among them), it would appear to fail RS as there appears to be no editorial oversight.
I also came across another film review site, "One Guy's Opinion" run by a professor History at the University of Dallas named Dr. Frank Sweitek. According to his bio on the site, "Under the initials FS, he’s been the film critic of the University News since 1988, has discussed movies on air at KRLD-AM (Dallas) and KOMO-AM (Seattle), and can now be heard talking about the week’s openings on KLIF-AM (Dallas) every Friday at 6:17am...He’s also the founding president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, a group of print, broadcast and web journalists covering film in the Metroplex, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society. His reviews are also included on the Rotten Tomatoes website." Again, an apparently well-read reviewer, but a website without editorial oversight.
Thoughts? - Jack Sebastian (talk) 02:02, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Who is allowed to write reviews for Rotten Tomatoes?Slatersteven (talk) 08:50, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

I have no opinion one way or another except to note that, per WP:SPS, self published sources are not entirely forbidden; in general self published sources by recognized experts in a particular field are generally thought carry the reputation of the expert and thus be reliable on their own without additional "editorial oversight". If a person were a recognized and well regarded expert in the field of film criticism, their own self-published works may be reliable. --Jayron32 14:25, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Also, of note here, is the purpose of the citation you are looking to make from these sites. A self-published source is a perfectly reliable source for quoting itself. Every source reliably quotes itself (self-evidently). If the text you are quoting is actually in the work you are citing, the work is perfectly reliable for that purpose of providing the quote itself. However, if you are asking if the person who wrote the quote you are reproducing is, themselves, worth quoting, that's a different question. In the case of film reviews, it isn't reliability (after all, a person should be self-evidently reliable in correctly reporting their own personal feelings about a film), but rather things like WP:UNDUE; it isn't that we don't believe the person actually had the opinion of the film they themselves wrote on their own website, it is whether or not that opinion has widespread acceptance by mainstream sources to be considered due weight for us to quote it. So, if you're citing the source because you want to quote or paraphrase those reviewers opinions about a movie, it isn't reliability that's the issue (we trust the people to reliably report their own opinions on their own websites) it's a question of whether or not they are even worth listening to on the matter. However, if you are trying to cite facts about the film in question which are not in other sources, that's a completely different thing. --Jayron32 14:31, 25 October 2019 (UTC)