Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources/Perennial sources

Find a Grave -- perennial source (cemetery listings v. grave listings)

A discussion is was underway at Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard#Find_a_Grave_clarification regarding a proposed clarification of the text about Find a Grave. (Apologies -- I should have opened the discussion here.) – S. Rich (talk) 17:11, 16 November 2023 (UTC) 16:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

This is a restatement of the Reliable sources noticeboard discussion referenced above. It is restarted here seeking to clarify when Find a Grave is an acceptable source verses when it is an acceptable external link. 16:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

At present the WP:RSP#Find a Grave listing for Find a Grave reads as follows:

The content on Find a Grave is user-generated, and is therefore considered generally unreliable. Links to Find a Grave may sometimes be included in the external links section of articles, when the site offers valuable additional content, such as images not permitted for use on Wikipedia. Take care that the Find a Grave page does not itself contain prohibited content, such as copyright violations.

This is only partially correct. To clarify, I recommend the following:

Interment information for individuals on Find a Grave is usually user-generated, and is therefore considered generally unreliable as a reliable source. Information about listed cemeteries and "famous" people is under the editorial control of Find a Grave itself but remains unusable as a reliable source. Accordingly, links to Find a Grave interment listings may sometimes be included in the external links section of articles, when the site offers valuable additional content, such as images not permitted for use on Wikipedia. Links to Find a Grave cemetery pages are generally acceptable in article External links sections. In all cases take care that the Find a Grave page does not itself contain prohibited content, such as copyright violations.

[Strike-out – Is this sentence useful, correct, or needed?]

[Italics – added verbage.]

This change distinguishes between the user-generatd burial listings and the website-generated or controlled information. E.g. WP:RSCONTEXT. – S. Rich (talk) 15:53, 14 November 2023 (UTC) 16:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Per the discussion at RSN, no change is needed. Nikkimaria (talk) 16:51, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

The RSN is concerned with the "reliability of sources in context!" This discussion is about posting FAG as an External link. Little of the RSN discussion was about External link postings. – S. Rich (talk) 19:52, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm glad this has arisen. Generally speaking, External Links are not expected to be sources. On other external links we don't delete the links on a reliability issue - we just leave the External Links alone. I bring this up, because Nikkimaria has been removing Find a Grave from external links. Nikkimaria, know that I like you and respect your work, but I find it counter-productive to Wikipedia to remove Find a Grave from the external links section. In fact, you seem to be going through my content articles, making that change. It's happened so much, that I feel like you're screening my articles. Wikipedia, as far as I know, has never asserted that anything under External Links be scrutinized as a reliable source. I wish we could go back to having Find a Grave under External Links. — Maile (talk) 20:49, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

I screen all articles for addition of such links, as the community consensus has been that they are rarely appropriate additions under the external links guideline. The discussion at RSN doesn't suggest that that has changed at this point. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:06, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

A few notes:

• RSP should probably just say "See Wikipedia:External links/Perennial websites#Find a Grave about using it in ==External links==". That would prevent any (further) unfortunate drift between the two.
• The bit about "In all cases take care that the Find a Grave page does not itself contain prohibited content, such as copyright violations" means that WP:LINKVIO (a legal policy) applies even if you think you otherwise have a good excuse to be linking to a page at that website. It should likely be retained in some form.
• The "generally unreliable as a reliable source" is unnecessary, since WP:ELMAYBE #4 has said (for almost the dawn of time) that ==External links== do not have to be Wikipedia:Reliable sources.

Accordingly, I suggest the following brief summary:

The entire website, including information about listed cemeteries and "famous" people, is generally unreliable. For inclusion in an external links section, see WP:FINDAGRAVE-EL. Never link to any page that contains copyright violations or other prohibited content.

I'm not sure that we need to provide any more detail than that. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:44, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Here is a complete list of all the pages you two have both edited in the last 30 days. It's this page, plus one (1) article. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:16, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

WhatamIdoing, clarification for you, and why this is so irritating to me. It started in 2021 on article Sarah Selby, which I had rescued. If memory serves me, this was a draft or something which was deleted. I created the article as a new page, but not from the draft. Nikkimaria deleted the Find A Grave under External links. Ever since then, Nikkimaria has been deleting Find A Grave here and there that I've left in External links. — Maile (talk) 21:24, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Would be best to try and find a site with information beyond what we have. [1]. A problem we had many years ago was the addition of the links after misleading information a copyrighted images were added to the BIOS at FaG..... thus has left a sour taste to many long time editors that remember having to deal with it. This is why this page has the FaG entry and the information to contact them about copyright concerns. Moxy- 23:13, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Maile66: clarification for you: as I said above, I screen all articles for addition of such links - there has been extensive discussion on them which has resulted in the consensus currently expressed at RSP and at ELPEREN. In the interest of good faith, I'd appreciate it if you'd strike or hat your accusations so we can return to discussing the proposed change to see if that consensus may have changed. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:55, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Huffington Post UK non-political

I was trying to cite the Huffington Post UK on the new shortwave broadcasts by the BBC on a page, but the Wiki system denied me saving the edit. As far as I understand, the Huffington Post is not completely banned! --Esperfulmo (talk) 11:56, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

@Esperfulmo:I was able to add it. I did not get a message. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 02:19, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! It's a mystery why I wasn't allowed. --Esperfulmo (talk) 02:37, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Is there a way to link to a particular news source listing?

Is there a way to link to a particular news source listing? For example, for The Independent, I was hoping to be able to use Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#The independent, but that doesn't seem to work. ReferenceMan (talk) 05:29, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Yep; we can add a shortcut, like {{/Shortcut|WP:The Independent}}. I've done that; you can now use WP:The Independent to link to it. BilledMammal (talk) 05:38, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Is there anyway to have that automatically done for all the sources? ReferenceMan (talk) 05:41, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

I've simultaneously added WP:INDYUK as one. Shortcuts are added on a need-to-have basis in order to maximize utility without cluttering the Wikipedia namespace. Cheers! Remsense留 05:47, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Assessment of BBC non-English content

Hello! After reviewing the archives, I have not found an assessment of the non-English content. Regarding this edit therefore I actually agreed with the edit summary that there is no discussion, which is why we should re-add a clarification that the non-english content is not part of the rating, to prevent any misinterpretation by other language wikis. Unless, we have evidence that the headquarters conduct quality control on the content published in other languages (and that those content are as reliable as the English content)? If so, can someone bring that up? Many thanks,

Tagging Mx. Granger as courtesy. --PeaceNT (talk) 00:01, 17 January 2024 (UTC)