User:Pedant/Pillars

Pillars of the community

As a community we pretty much all "make the rules" on an ongoing basis, so things change all the time, but some of our policies -- that we pretty much all agree to or we couldn't do this writing-an-encyclopedia thing together -- those key policies are what holds so many different people together, and though, eventually any rule may change, certain of our "rules" are pretty much set in stone.

The key to them all is the rule that anyone can edit:

One of these pretty much absolutely necessary tools, or rules or policies or whatever you choose to call them is "Everything in an article must express a Neutral Point of View", because if it isn't neutral, someone else will come along and change it, remember, anyone can edit.

Because anyone can edit, only true verifiable facts stand any chance of not being edited, so to protect our valuable work, "sources should be cited for facts".... which also means we don't write what we know, we write what is available from another source, because an encyclopedia is not a 'primary source' where people read original research but a compendium of information referenced from other sources.

This means opinions can stay only if they are published somewhere, and attributed to the person expressing the opinion (So its ok to write a statement of fact such as "The stage manager at the Huntsville Playhouse calls Mr. Arno "the most talented novelty performer" he has met." -- if there is a reference for it.) Because anyone can edit, unreferenced information will often be tagged like this: , and eventually may be deleted (anyone can edit, remember?) if no reference is added.

If I say for instance "Bob can seemingly remove a man's shirt -- after loosening his necktie and unbuttoning his collar and cuffs -- by yanking upwards on the collar, while the man is still wearing his jacket", well that is a 'statement of fact', and it would be considered important to cite a source for that fact, and it allows our reader to decide for himself that it is an astounding feat. We probably wouldn't write "Bob Arno can perform astounding feats" because anyone can edit, and 'anyone' may not have the opinion that Bob's feats are astounding.

And if I say "Bob is the 7th greatest pickpocket performer of all time, worldwide.", that is 'an opinion', and is not suitable for inclusion in an encyclopedia -- unless it can be substantiated by some sort of objective criteria and measurement of skill, and credible evidence that untested pickpockets do not have better skills (or whatever criteria you use to test this type of entertainer). Why? Because opinions do not express a neutral point of view, 'anyone' may have a different opinion, and (say it with me, loud and proud) anyone can edit!.