This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: In article writing and content disputes, participants' credentials do not matter. What matters is the ability to reason and provide external sources for one's own claims. |
"Credentials are useless" or "Nobody cares about your credentials" is a counter-proposal (or rather, a bunch of thoughts) to some recent ideas of verifying user's claimed credentials so that scandals such as the Essjay controversy never happen again on Wikipedia. It refers to both the credential verification idea as well as the admin accountability proposal, both of which I believe to be fundamentally flawed.
Yes, it's an essay, so that nobody can mess with it, making it {{ rejected}} or something. You are welcome to make a useful policy out of this though (just don't steal my credit... or do, whatever floats your boat).
For the ease of reading, I have set it up into a Q&A format. If you would like to add a question to the list, post it on the talk page and I might decide on adding it. Typographical corrections are always welcome, but please leave the merits to me (and fork if you wish).
This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: In article writing and content disputes, participants' credentials do not matter. What matters is the ability to reason and provide external sources for one's own claims. |
"Credentials are useless" or "Nobody cares about your credentials" is a counter-proposal (or rather, a bunch of thoughts) to some recent ideas of verifying user's claimed credentials so that scandals such as the Essjay controversy never happen again on Wikipedia. It refers to both the credential verification idea as well as the admin accountability proposal, both of which I believe to be fundamentally flawed.
Yes, it's an essay, so that nobody can mess with it, making it {{ rejected}} or something. You are welcome to make a useful policy out of this though (just don't steal my credit... or do, whatever floats your boat).
For the ease of reading, I have set it up into a Q&A format. If you would like to add a question to the list, post it on the talk page and I might decide on adding it. Typographical corrections are always welcome, but please leave the merits to me (and fork if you wish).