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Withdrawn by proposer. Wrong time, wrong place, and too complicated for the participants.—Preceding unsigned comment added by
BullRangifer - 04:02, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Rfctag
Proposal:
I'd like to add direct wikilinks to Category:Pseudoscience at three spots in the section entitled Pseudoscience and related fringe theories. No change of wording is proposed and thus no change of policy. To ensure that misunderstandings can't be used against me, I'll make it clear that this entails decisions about the (1) intent of the existing wording, and approval of the (2) addition of a wikilink in three spots. Please weigh in. -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:52, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
Background:
In the section entitled Pseudoscience and related fringe theories, four guidelines are listed. The introduction immediately before the guidelines and the first two guidelines contain wording regarding "categorize" as pseudoscience. If I recall the Pseudoscience ArbCom correctly (and the wordings of the first two guidelines came directly from it ( Guideline 1 and Guideline 2), this wording refers to the use of Category:Pseudoscience. Not all editors may realize that this was and is the intended meaning, and I'd like to add category wikilinks in the appropriate places to make this intention explicitly clear.
Here is the current wording: (bolding added)
What this will look like with the wikilinks:
This doesn't represent any change of policy or any change of wording, but only makes the original intention of ArbCom and the current intention of this policy clearer. That whole section isn't so much about defining pseudoscience, but about how we are to present, describe, classify, and categorize pseudoscience at Wikipedia, which obviously includes how we use Category:Pseudoscience.
What think ye? -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:52, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
Crum375 has now twice reverted edits approved by a consensus. I have explained it on their talk page, but they reverted again without doing their homework. That's edit warring. From their talkpage:
Reverting without reading edit summaries and checking to see if they are true is disruptive. Their edit summary proves they didn't do their homework, because it is factually incorrect:
Obviously the consensus in a very notable RfC on this page approved of using this reference in this manner.
Crum375 happens to be one of the few editors who !voted against the clear consensus in two RfCs on this subject, and I fear this is clouding their judgment. Maybe they should leave it alone and see how editors who don't have such a COI deal with this. Editing against consensus isn't very wikipedian. It's disruptive edit warring. -- Brangifer ( talk) 03:55, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
From the RfC: "Please weigh in on whether a statement by the National Science Foundation is a reliable source to use as an illustration for a portion of an ArbCom statement used in the NPOV policy." Further down in the introduction I make it even more clear.... "I would like to add an example as a reference in the Pseudoscience and related fringe theories section. This section contains wording from the ArbCom ruling on the treatment of pseudoscience." I then created a very clear example of exactly what I was proposing. If you missed it, that's not my fault. I was very, very clear. -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
It's rather (un)remarkable, that those who object !voted against the RfC, so no real objection is being raised here. If those who !voted for the RfC objected, then we'd have to start another RfC over this small bit of improvement. Only those who objected before are objecting now, ergo the negatives remain unchanged, and the positives remain unchanged. Status quo. -- Brangifer ( talk) 05:52, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
As an aside, why were arbcom findings deprecated? I personally would think that these are the most pertinent references, I mean really, why are we referring to outside sources for our policy? Unomi ( talk) 16:35, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
The first of several questions suggested by Crum375 as a way to resolve the dispute. In order to help work towards a consensus, please limit yourself to a statement on this issue and keep any threaded discussion for the discussion section (or elsewhere on this page as appropriate). Shell babelfish 16:45, 16 March 2010 (UTC) -- Just to clarify, you're welcome to put your reasoning with your answer, but limit replies to other people's reasoning or other discussion to the discussion section (sorry about the confusion!) Shell babelfish 17:44, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I don't know if this is the correct page. Couldn't find a way to search the archives. (Yes. It's "easy" if you know how! Maybe a reminder could be placed at the top of the page?)
Realized that "million" which I have been placing in a lot of articles is ambiguous. UK (and others?) use it differently than Americans. Should this word be verboten? Student7 ( talk) 13:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Closed There are too many somewhat related contentious debates open at this time. There seems to be consensus to postpone this discussion. Hans Adler 14:36, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
Inspired by, but separate from the specific debates above.... I think we need to discuss how NPOV applies to categorization in more depth. NPOV mentions categories or categorization in two sections: WP:UNDUE (in passing), and WP:PSCI (repeatedly).
For its part, WP:CAT links to NPOV once... saying: Categorizations appear on pages without annotations or referencing to justify or explain their addition; editors should be conscious of the need to maintain a neutral point of view when creating categories or adding them to articles. Categorizations should generally be uncontroversial; if the category's topic is likely to spark controversy, then a list article (which can be annotated and referenced) is probably more appropriate.
I think everyone would agree that categories can be misused to push POV agendas, and that this is something we want to prevent... the question is where and how should we discuss this. As I said above, categories are navigation tools and not article content, and so properly fall outside the scope of this policy. At this point, I am not proposing any specific changes to either policy... I just think some discussion on the issue is called for. Please share your thoughts. Blueboar ( talk) 14:51, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
As discussed, I am Closing this thread for now. Blueboar ( talk) 14:28, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
Someone on a talk page mis-understood this sentence Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By "fact" we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." to mean that an assertion of fact did not need a reference, even though a couple other editors explained it did need one. I think you have to make it clear at top of the section, instead of the bottom, that reliable sources are needed. Part of the confusion is that you mix two examples that don't need referencing (Mars and Plato) with one that clearly could produce disagreement ("a survey produced a certain published result"). Now unless I am mis-understanding the meaning of the section myself - and someone would need to clarify it in that case, I'll change it to end possible confusion. Thoughts?? CarolMooreDC ( talk) 13:46, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
Unnecessary attribution is a violation of WP:ASF policy when no serious dispute exists among reliable sources (an objective fact that is not a serious dispute). WP:ASF does not require in-text attribution for information where there is no serious dispute. Requiring in-text attribution for widespread consensus of reliable sources on the grounds that it is "opinion" would allow a contrarian reader to insist on in-text attribution for material about which there is no serious dispute, using the argument that the material is an "opinion". This would mean, in the end, that all material in Wikipedia would require in-text attribution, even if only one Wikipedia editor insisted on it, which is not the intent of WP:ASF or of WP:CONSENSUS. QuackGuru ( talk) 07:03, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
"Adding inline-text attribution is unnecessary when the information is not seriously disputed among reliable sources." I think this will work. QuackGuru ( talk) 21:33, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
After coming back a few days later I see this issue more clearly and propose:
Hearing no dissent, I'll for for it! CarolMooreDC ( talk) 03:31, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I've rewritten a little, because as it stood it appeared to be an NPOV and NOR violation. It now says essentially the same thing, but is streamlined a little, and it stresses the need for reliable sources. Before and after. The "after" version is:
==Fringe theories==
When discussing fringe views, any mention of them should be proportionate, making clear which is the dominant majority view among reliable sources, and which the minority view. Topics that represent tiny-minority views should be discussed in articles devoted to them. Examples of these are forms of historical revisionism that reliable sources widely regard as lacking evidence—or actively ignoring it—such as Holocaust denial or claims that the Apollo moon landing was faked.
===Pseudoscience===
When discussing topics that reliable sources say are pseudoscientific, editors should be careful not to present those views alongside the scientific consensus as though they are equal but opposing views. While pseudoscience may in some cases be significant to an article, it should not obfuscate the description of the main views. Topics that may be added to the pseudoscience category include the following:
- 1. Obviously bogus ideas: Obviously bogus theories such as Time Cube may be described as pseudoscience if reliable sources concur.
- 2. Generally considered pseudoscience: Theories which have a following, such as astrology, but which are generally considered pseudoscience by the scientific community may also be described as pseudoscience if reliable sources concur.
The following should not be added to the category, even if there are reliable sources for the claim:
- 3. Theories with a substantial and respectable following: Established ideas and practices such as psychoanalysis, which some critics allege are pseudoscientific but which also attract an academic following, may contain the view that they are pseudoscientific if it is reliably sourced, but the claim should not be added to the lead or highlighted unduly, and should not be included without qualification.
- 4. Alternative theoretical formulations: Alternative theoretical formulations from within the scientific community, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics as opposed to dark matter, which are part of the scientific process. Such theoretical formulations may fail to explain some aspect of reality, but should they succeed will be rapidly accepted. For instance, the theory of continental drift was heavily criticized because there was no known mechanism for it, and thus the evidence in its favor was dismissed. When the mechanism was discovered, it became mainstream as plate tectonics.
I still think it could use a bit of work, as it seems to encourage adding "pseudoscience" when the thing was never meant to be science in the first place, but at least if we stress the need for reliable sources that may go some way toward alleviating that. SlimVirgin TALK contribs 13:59, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
I don't care for the changes to the "Obviously bogus ideas" section. The new wording does not say essentially the same thing as before. Maybe that's OK as the older version may have violated WP:OR and/or WP:NPOV. But the new wording doesn't make much sense. There's now a qualifier about reliable sources. AFAIK there are no reliable sources that explicitly say TimeCube is pseudoscience. So, it's kind of a bad example. Also, if reliable sources are required, what's the point of titling the section as "Obviously bogus"? I used to understand what this section meant. Now I don't. It seems to be a wholesale departure from what it used to mean. A Quest For Knowledge ( talk) 20:50, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
I'm splitting off the section, here. Maurreen ( talk) 09:42, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
1. The lead has been changed from:
to:
I think the "other encyclopedic content" (or some variation) needs to be restored because categories, templates, and probably other things that aren't articles, could easily be cast in a POV manner. My guess is that the original wording is suggesting that there should be no attempt to apply WP:NPOV to what editors write on a talk page (although WP:BLP and other policies do restrict discussions), but categories and so on must comply with WP:NPOV.
2. The following paragraph has been omitted from the Pseudoscience section:
I think this should be retained as a very useful explanation of the distinction. It's all very well to say that we rely purely on reliable sources without thinking, but the above para is helpful in practice to explain the general strategy that should be applied (subject to reliable sources). Johnuniq ( talk) 00:41, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
While we're at it I wouldn't mind removing the religion section too, for the same reasons. I think these were sections that were on the FAQ page, which really wasn't an appropriate thing to have policy status, and when it was decided to get rid of it, these sections were moved back here. This page should deal with general principles; particular examples are fine but they shouldn't develop into whole sections. The section says:
In the case of human beliefs and practices, Wikipedia content should not only encompass what motivates individuals who hold these beliefs and practices, but also account for how such beliefs and practices developed. Wikipedia articles on history and religion draw from a religion's sacred texts as well as from modern archaeological, historical, and scientific sources.
Some adherents of a religion might object to a critical historical treatment of their own faith because in their view such analysis discriminates against their religious beliefs. Their point of view must be mentioned if it can be documented by independent reliable sources, yet note that there is no contradiction. NPOV policy means that Wikipedia editors ought to try to write sentences like this: "Certain adherents of this faith (say which) believe X, and also believe that they have always believed X; however, due to the findings (say which) of modern historians and archaeologists (say which), other adherents (say which) of this faith now believe Z."
Several words that have very specific meanings in studies of religion have different meanings in less formal contexts, e.g. fundamentalism and mythology. Wikipedia articles about religious topics should take care to use these words only in their formal senses in order to avoid causing unnecessary offense or misleading the reader. Conversely, editors should not avoid using terminology that has been established by the majority of the current reliable and note worthy sources on a topic out of sympathy for a particular point of view, or concern that readers may confuse the formal and informal meanings. Details about some particular terms can be found at words to avoid.
SlimVirgin TALK contribs 16:55, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view. There is a proposal to remove two topic-specific sections, one on pseudoscience, the other on religion, so that the policy provides only a general overview. Fresh eyes would be appreciated.
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
Possible problem. See essay Wikipedia:Reliable_source_examples#Religious_sources, which suggests recognizing some religious sources as reliable in some contexts. It might be necessary for the policy page to make clear what counts as scholarship. Peter jackson ( talk) 10:42, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable on a talk page as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
However, there is an additional question in regards to WP:PSCI. As the language in this section is derived directly from an important arb-com ruling, would it be better to save that language by moving it to some other policy or guideline page, such as WP:FRINGE?
Thoughts? (and if this is more or less the right idea... feel free to tweek it) Blueboar ( talk) 21:23, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
A neutral point of view should not promote any idea beyond its prominence in verifiable reliable sources, nor disparage it for not having gained more prominence. Ideas should be described impartially to the extent possible, reflecting the available sources. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable on a talk page as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors often wish to advocate positions they feel strongly about, but we should never allow our personal views to bias our editing.
A neutral point of view should not promote any idea beyond its prominence in verifiable reliable sources, and not disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas should be described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors often wish to advocate positions they feel strongly about, but we should never allow our personal views to bias our editing.
I really like the language that we are working on, and I think we should definitely incorporate it into the policy... but... it reads like a general statement of what NPOV is all about. Something that belongs in the first few paragraphs of the policy rather than as a replacement for the PSCI and RNPOV sections. Thoughts? Blueboar ( talk) 14:02, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Given the comments above, I propose the following language for the RfC:
Does this accurately portray the question in a neutral tone? Blueboar ( talk) 12:55, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view. There is a proposal to remove two topic-specific sections, one on pseudoscience, the other on religion, so that the policy provides only a general overview.
Basically the same issues are discussed in the "Article titles" section of this page, and at WP:Article titles#Descriptive titles and neutrality. To avoid duplication and the difficulties of maintaining the same text in two places, would it seem a sensible approach to do a brief summary of the principles here, and the details at WP:AT?-- Kotniski ( talk) 19:10, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
I favour greatly reducing this section. Much of the first and last paragraphs are waffle. And note that this policy needn't guide readers all the way to choosing a title; it need only guide readers to the point of recognising which candidate titles are acceptable per this NPOV policy. They may find ten such candidates, in which case it is up to WP:AT to guide them to choose the most appropriate one.
I propose the following:
When there is no consensus amongst neutral reliable sources on how to refer to a topic, a descriptive title is constructed. Neutrality is especially important in these cases because it ensures that article topics are placed in the proper context, preventing the article title itself from becoming a source of contention and polarization. Therefore descriptive titles are expected to exhibit the highest degree of neutrality."
In fact, thinking about this some more, it would actually make sense for this page not to have a section on article titles per se, but on the terms we use to name things (which includes article titles as well as section titles and the way we refer to things in article text). Then we can refer people to WP:AT for issues that apply specifically to article titles.-- Kotniski ( talk) 12:57, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
I believe that the guidance specifically about article titles should be on the article titles page, and that guidance more generally about neutrality in naming (which seems to be absent at the moment, though it shouldn't be, since it keeps coming up in various contexts) should be on this page. The present setup is somewhat messy, illogical and incomplete. A draft as to how to do this is at User:Kotniski/Neu - comments and co-editing are welcome there.-- Kotniski ( talk) 10:20, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
Dear Sir/Madam, I observed that the articles on Christianiy, Islam, Hinduism, Osteopathy, Naturopathy,
Chiropractic etc. are good and positive and there are forks to the articles on Christianiy,
Islam and Hinduism which contain all the criticism. The article on Homeopathy as well as
its fork for criticism (' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Homeopathy/Criticism'), on the
other hand, are both negative and bad; so can we make the article on Homeopathy good and
positive like all the other articles and put all the criticism on its fork? If there's a
rule that both articles should be full of criticism, then we must make the matter in the
criticism fork available in the main article for Christianiy, Islam and Hinduism also. Thanking you, Yours faithfully, Dr.Vittal ( talk) 05:01, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
I have a couple of concerns on the recently vigorously edited fringe section.
The changes which removed science as the unique source to NPOV seem reasonable at first sight. I like the shorter section. But science when correctly carried out is by its very nature NPOV, ruthlessly discarding old theories when better one come along. And NPOV procedures like this result in science. Is it worth mentioning something about science (or the scientific method) lest we slip back into an age of superstition and "revealed Truth" unchallenged?
Stephen B Streater ( talk) 21:14, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
In an article about some topic raising disputes among scholars. It can be article about climate change, historical event, philosophical position, political movement. While using some author as a source. Is it important what position author holds regarding the subject, is it important to mention that position in the article, and what rules regulate that? Thanks! -- windyhead ( talk) 20:06, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
So may we somehow process to make changes to the rule? What the addition could be? -- windyhead ( talk) 12:41, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
So how about this addition to Attributing and specifying biased statements section: If the author is known to adhere to (to hold) some position on a subject he's discussing, and there is a reliable source for that, it is good the author's position to be mentioned. Please improve. -- windyhead ( talk) 10:24, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
almost-instinct says on Wikipedia_talk:Quotations#Unable_To_Post: "For the biogs sections I chose quotes that had some relevence to that section of Larkin's life. The other quotes are from popular poems and can stand alone."
We already have an article listing of Philip Larkin's Poems.
His choice of quotes is representing a certain point of view, specifically his, and using thisthese quotes creates an opinion that wikipedia endorses. These quotes should be moved to wikiquote. Can we get more feedback?
96.52.92.106 (
talk) 03:46, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
To quote SlimVirgin above a general content policy is not the place to discuss specific content issues in depth Discuss this on the talk page of the article, as it seems to be primarily a content dispute. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 12:14, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
Comments requested as to whether it is appropriate for a broad policy to discuss issues that relate to only one specific topic area. There are currently two topic-specific sections in the NPOV policy that do this: WP:PSCI (relating only to pseudoscience) and WP:RNPOV (relating only to religion). It is proposed that these sections be removed. It is further proposed that the section on pseudoscience should be merged into WP:FRINGE. - Blueboar ( talk) 19:50, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
Secondly, the pseudoscience section comes straight from ArbCom, and while I have no problem linking to an ArbCom case, or repeating a decision in a behavioral policy, I'm not comfortable about quoting them at length in a content policy, and I doubt if the ArbCom intended to be so quoted.
Finally, a general content policy is not the place to discuss specific content issues in depth; both the pseudoscience and religion sections would be more appropriate elsewhere, e.g. WP:FRINGE for pseudoscience. SlimVirgin talk contribs 06:44, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
OK... I have moved the pseudoscience section to WP:FRINGE as per the suggestion. Before I remove the Religion section, we need to think... is there a home for it somewhere else... can we move it or should it be simply deleted? Blueboar ( talk) 22:16, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
-
In the definition of a fact in WP:ASF, I don't think we mean "about which there is no dispute". Many facts are disputed (like evolution or the existence of the gas chambers); that doesn't stop us asserting them. -- Kotniski ( talk) 08:28, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Forcing changes without consensus to core Wikipedia policy is acceptable. These massive changes changed the meaning of ASF. I restored ASF to the last consensus version. ASF is not about fact-requiring-sources vs. fact-not-requiring-sources. It is about a fact v. an opinion. It is not about WP:V. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:45, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Kotniski, I specifically rejected your suggestion to rewrite entire policy. Why are you rewriting ASF without a discussion first. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:00, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
The edit did not match the edit summary. The edit summary was surely this is what it's trying to say?. Kotniski deleted a significant part of ASF policy without explanation. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:43, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
I get the sense that this discussion is off a little bit. I see no point to a discussion of fact vs. opinion - the distinction as such is irrelevant to Wikipedia, there are only views. I suspect that the cause of confusion here is that the issue (with fact) is not whether it is highly disputed, somewhat disputed, or accepted. I think the important issue is "by whom?" What makes evolution a "fact" is that all major biologists accept it. That matters. That fundamentalist Christians do not accept it matters too, which is why Wikipedia presents the article on creationism with the same neutraility as it presents the article on evolution. My point is, there are few if any "facts" that everyone in the world agree on. But there is a big difference between something that all biologists accept and no fundamentalist Christian accepts, and something that biologists are divided on, and fundamentalists are divided on. In short, we treat something as a fact when all the views we agree need to be represented in the article accept it as such. But it is still a view, it is just a view that is shared by all stakeholders in the given article. Slrubenstein | Talk 20:30, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
The argument between Zaereth and Elen of the Roads (or anyone with a solid grounding in science) as to whether evolution is a fact or not demonstrates the wisdom of our NPOV policy quite nicely. Of course evolution is a fact, and Zaereth doesn't know what the difference is between a theory and an opinion. But ask Zaereth and she will say that I am the one who is full of crap. So we could go endlessly in circles, "I am write," "No, I am right" ... or we can comply with Wikipedia policy, specifically this one, NPOV, and say that there are just views. There is a consensus among scientists that evolution is a fact. Do you see what I have done? I have ascribed this view to the people who hold the view. And by implication it is now clear that we are talking about views, because at Wikipedia that is all there are, views held by different people. Scientists are of the view that evolution is a fact. Fundamentalists are of the view that it is an opinion. See my point? It doesn't matter whther we call it a fact or an opinion, because both of those are views. What does matter is identifying whose view, because depending on whose view we are talking about it is a fact, or an opinion. It is obviously both, in that diferent groups hold both views. If you cannot live with this, you do not belong at Wikipedia. Go find another soapbox. Slrubenstein | Talk 23:34, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Notification:The suggestion to completely rewrite or cut in half ASF seems to change (possibly even eliminate) the long-standing policies in the ASF section. If we're going to eliminate one of the purposes of WP:ASF, then I'd think it'd be worthy to have a broader discussion (probably a RFC) specifically on that topic first. So far no logical reason has been given to drastically change core ASF policy. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the nonbias policy: assert
facts, including facts about opinions--but don't assert opinions themselves.
By "fact," on the one hand, we mean "a piece of information about which
there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a
certain published result is a fact. That Mars is a planet is a fact.
That 2+2=4 is a fact. That Socrates was a philosopher is a fact. No one
seriously disputes any of these things. So Wikipedians can feel free to
assert as many of them as we can. By "opinion," on the other hand, we
mean "a piece of information about which there is some serious dispute."
There's bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should
take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that
very clearly express opinions. That God exists is an opinion. That the
Beatles were the greatest rock and roll group is an opinion. That
intuitionistic logic is superior to ordinary logic is an opinion. That the
United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
is an opinion.
This is the first paragraph from early years Wikipedia policy when Larry Sanger was editing. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:33, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Richard Dawkins, a hard-headed scientist, in his book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, goes on at quite some length in his first chapter, titled "Only a theory", about treating a scientific theory as fact, quoting two senses of the word Theory from the OED:
Theory, Sense 1: A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.
Theory, sense 2: A hypothesis proposed as an explanation; hence, a mere hypothesis, speculation, conjecture; an idea or set of ideas about something; an individual view or notion.
He goes on to name Heliocentrism and Evolution as two examples of theories where the Sense 1 definition applies.
I saw a WP talk page remark recently saying that in the statement "When a gold-leaf electroscope is charged, the leaves separate because the like charges on the two leaves cause them to repel one another.", the portion prior to the word because is fact, and the rest is scientific opinion. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 01:49, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
This isn't helped by dividing the material between three separate pages (NPOV, V, NOR). But whatever it is we want to say, we need to say it clearly. As far as my edit goes, as far as I can tell no-one's actually raised any objections to it - it doesn't change the substance of what was written, just makes it shorter and clearer (though doubtless it could be further improved). In fact I think we should tear up these three pages as currently written, since there is no agreement among editors even on what they mean (and hence they are quite unhelpful and misleading to the newcomers for whom they are intended), and work on writing something clear that all reasonable editors will understand and agree on. But meanwhile, I think those of you who revert changes just because they "need consensus" (and without specifying what objection you have to them) have no idea how Wikipedia works. That attitude is probably responsible for the pitiful state these pages have got into - incomprehensible text isn't allowed to be touched because it's sacred, so eventually such text overruns the whole page. (OK it's not all that bad, but really, this is one of the most key policies, and there shouldn't be anything unclear or meaningless on the page.)-- Kotniski ( talk) 05:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
The point of the section is to inform new readers of the sort of thing they should be doing, not to try and specify every action in every case. How about a new section, perhaps called A simple formulation, which looks like this. The detailed version being discussed here could then be added below by means of explanation for those who need it. We could fix the wording common knowledge to take into account Zaereth's point, but this gist is that referencing every trivial facts clutters up articles. Stephen B Streater ( talk) 07:01, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
I think we're getting in a tangle because we're not thinking about why we are referring to common knowledge. It's not because its easily verifiable, it's because it is beyond dispute. The whole thrust of ASF is that unless something is beyond dispute, the article must retain an overall neutral approach to presenting the information, because there will be differing views (I'm favouring Slrubenstein on this - I don't think differentiating between 'fact' and 'opinion' is particularly helpful). Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:00, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
So perhaps something like:-
Some article content is common knowledge - water is wet, for example - and can just be stated. However, for most subjects, the likelihood is that there is more than one view on them. Editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only view (the Flailing Hairnets are the best band to come out of Swindon in years). Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view presented comes from and how well established is (a poll in NME voted the Flailing Hairnets the best band to come out of Swindon in years), and including information on alternative views when these exist (in Radio 6 'Band of the Month' polls, listeners voted the Flailing Hairnets sixth in three consecutive months).
It can then go on to advice on
etc Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:13, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Second attempt: Some article content is common knowledge. Other content is not disputed - all the sources give the same answer. However, where there is more than one view on the content, editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only one, or insist that their view should be the only one in the article. Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view you want to present comes from, how well established is, and what the alternative views are. Reliable sources should be used, as well as talkpage discussion, to ensure that overall the article has a balanced presentation of all the views.
I'd then give a list of do's and don'ts, rather than paragraphs of information. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:48, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
I have been trying my best to read the above, but may have still missed something crucial. As far as I see it, we should not distinguish, or even try to define, "fact" or "opinion". From WP's point of view, per WP:V and WP:NOR, anything which we write must be attributable to a reliable source. If anything is challenged or likely to be challenged, or quoted, we must cite an inline source. If the material is the common view by all reliable sources, i.e. "asserted", then it generally needs no attribution, though it still needs to be attributable. If the material is contentious, there should be in-text attribution, i.e. "X says Y". Other cases can have just an inline citation as appropriate. I think trying to add definitions of "facts" and "opinions" only adds unnecessary confusion. Crum375 ( talk) 13:26, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Where there is more than one view on the content of an article, editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only one, or insist that their view should be the only one in the article. Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view you want to present comes from, how well established is, and what the alternative views are. Reliable sources should be used to ensure that overall the article has a balanced presentation of all the views.
Do not
Do
More could be said, I'm sure Elen of the Roads ( talk) 13:53, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
@Kotniski, it is surprising how often what one thinks of as 'fact' turns out to be no such thing. Documents are missing, eyewitness testimonies are contradictory, governments are suspected of doctoring figures, maps are misleading, instructions are vague. No-one can agree with 'factual' certainty on the governmental status of Gibralter (just go look at the talk page - it got so violent it ended at ArbCom). How can that be? Because there are two absolutely rock solid reliable sources (the UN and the UK Government) that contradict each other. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 16:10, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
A few editors seem to not understand what this sentence means. It has nothing at all to do with WP:V. It is about attributing to so-and-so said. It is about asserting a fact without in-text attribution and for an opinion do not assert it but instead use in-text attribution when there is a serious dispute. In-text attribution is not V. In-text attribution is so-and-so said. This is a case by case basis for each article and not set in stone. Although this policy is not specifically about V controversial text still must ber verified.
This is a proposal for Facts and opinions (ASF): "In Wikipedia most facts, except the most obvious ones - like “Mars is a planet” and “Plato was a philosopher” - must be verified through a reliable source regardless if it is a truthful statement." If editors want to include information about V to avoid confusion we can include this sentence. I made this proposal based on this comment. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:24, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
On Wikipedia we most certainly do distinguish between facts and opinions. If you disagree then you want to eliminate core ASF policy. Attributable to a reliable source and in-text attribution are different points. Do you understand there is a difference or are you thoroughly confused. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:42, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
(ec) There is no "ASF" policy. The ASF section in NPOV is an island of confusion, which doesn't say anything intelligible. At best it repeats what's already in NPOV and other policies. All material on WP must be attributable to a reliable source. An inline citation is required if the material is challenged, or likely to challenged, or a quote. An in-text attribution is recommended if the material is contentious. There is no need to classify material into categories of "fact", "fiction", "truth", "opinion", "idea" or whatever. All such classifications do is add confusion among editors. Crum375 ( talk) 16:52, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Quack. Do you want to say "all controversial material must be cited" or "don't add opinions as if they were Gospel"? It doesn't matter whether you call it a fact or a teapot - if someone disputes the information it requires a citation, if Gordon Brown says Labour are the greatest, I can't put "labour are the greatest" in the article. "Show clearly when you are reporting on a particular view, and be clear about whose view it is " (quoting myself) would appear to cover it. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 17:38, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Start at WP:NPOVN which is specifically for reporting NPOV issues. If he's edit warring to maintain his version, you could report him for it. You could start an RfC. Or try WP:FTN if the view he is promoting is at all fringe. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 22:54, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
(ec)Crum375 seems to have a clear and consistent understanding of Wikipedia policy, and frankly, i do not understand many of the comments others have made. Above, Zaereth (who I am sure has made countless good edits to the encyclopedia) wrote, "A fact is information that can be verified or documented. It is known to be true. On the other hand, opinions are personal beliefs, views, or judgements." This is simply not true. Yes, facts can be verified. But so can opinions. It is verifiable that Ronald Reagan thought the Soviet Union evil. It is verifiable that George Bush thought Iran, Iraq, and North Korea evil. The distinction is not between one thing that can be verified and one thing that cannot be verified, the difference is between something that may verifiably be claimed by only one person, and another thing that is claimed by all members of the AAAS, and another thing that is claimed by all human beings.
Above, Quack pushes the following absurd policy: "In Wikipedia most facts, except the most obvious ones - like “Mars is a planet” and “Plato was a philosopher” - must be verified through a reliable source regardless if it is a truthful statement." This is not our policy, and if you think it is fixing something, I tell you, it is not broken. According to our Vpolicy, all views in Wikipedia must be verifiable - not verified, but verifiable or as Crum correctly put it, "attributable." Now, which views actually must be verivied? Controversial ones. Controversial where? Well, on the article talk page. The only practical way forward is if we take the people participating on the talk page to represent a community of people with overlapping intrerests and knowledge. If there is something NONE of them consider controversial, it will naturally be added to or remain in the article without a citation. it has to be possible to find a citation, but no one has to. One day someone comes and deltes something saying it is wrong. Yes, they can even delete the sentence, Plato was a philosopher. Suddenly it is controversial. Well, now you have to provide a citation (if it is so obvious, it should be very easy to find a reliable source). If the new editor still claims Plato was not a philosopher, you don't say "Go away!" You follow our policy: ask that person to present a reliable source. If she does, we rewrite the article, to include both (even though they contradict) views: Some say Plato was a philosopher (lots of cites), some say he was not (some cites) or whatever. Thi sis how it works and Quack's proposed policy only takes a clear an dsimple to follow rule and turns it into something that will promote confusion and conflict.
There is no policy on facts and opinions. There is an NPOV policy and this paragraph was added to try to explain it. Whoever wrote it did not do a great job, thus all the wasted electrons here. Delete it, revise it, but let's stick to our actual policies, NPOV and V: verifiability, not truth, and all significant views from reliable sources go in. These are principles all can follow. Slrubenstein | Talk 23:23, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
In my opinion, the ASF section as it stands is essentially an essay embedded inside a policy page. As Elen noted above, although its intent was probably benign originally, the end result was unneeded confusion, as can be seen in the above threads. I suggest that we remove this section, and if there is to be any replacement, it should be carefully thought out and agreed upon on this talk page. At the moment, I see nothing in that section which is not covered in the rest of the NPOV page or elsewhere. I believe removing this section will improve NPOV and eliminate many needless arguments. Crum375 ( talk) 23:56, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Original ASF policy. |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the nonbias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions--but don't assert opinions themselves. By "fact," on the one hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That the Mars is a planet is a fact. That 2+2=4 is a fact. That Socrates was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So Wikipedians can feel free to assert as many of them as we can. By "opinion," on the other hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is some serious dispute." There's bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that very clearly express opinions. That God exists is an opinion. That the Beatles were the greatest rock and roll group is an opinion. That intuitionistic logic is superior to ordinary logic is an opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an opinion.
not matter what the actual truth of the matter is; there can at least in theory be false "facts" (things that everybody agrees upon, but which are, in fact, false), and there are very often true "opinions," though necessarily, it seems, more false ones than true.
we might want to state opinions, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "God exists," which is an opinion, we can say, "Most Americans believe that God exists," which is a fact, or "Thomas Aquinas believed that God exists," which is also a fact. In the first instance we assert an opinion; in the second and third instances we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing it to someone. However, both of those facts are colored by what evidence supports those facts and the semantics behind both statements: the first is a statement gleaned from polls and is thus subject to the facts behind poll-taking; the second is gleaned from the writings of Aquinas, which are very different from polls. And the conception of God in the modern era is very different from that of the age of Aquinas. Fortunately, Wikipedia can have entries on God, Thomas Aquinas, polls, etc., to elucidate these points.
say that we should state facts and not opinions. When asserting a fact about an opinion, it is important also to assert facts about competing opinions, and to do so without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It's also generally important to give the facts about the reasons behind the views, and to make it clear who holds them. (It's often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.) Here is a cut and paste of the version that Elen of the Roads noted above that is PERFECTLY CLEAR. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:59, 22 April 2010 (UTC) |
@Crum375. Agree entirely. You can sum the whole thing up in a couple of sentences - don't say anything you can't verify with reliable sources, and if sources disagree, make this clear in the way you present the information, using in-text attribution or direct quotes. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 00:25, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Zaereth, verifiability on WP simply means that a reliable source has published it. I don't know what you mean by "factuality." The two are unlikely to be related except in the empty sense that it's a fact that A published X. SlimVirgin talk contribs 04:03, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
About this whole thread: there is no assert facts policy! The policy is "NPOV." Larry Sanger first imported from Nupedia an explanation of his idea of neutrality, and the policy page actually included the discussion (I do not think we had talk pages back then) about the policy. Believe it or not, the discussion was over whether the NPOV policy was "American-centric." Maybe this is because larry included some examples that refered to the US. The question was whether more explanation was needed to make NPOV intelligible to Brits, Aussies, etc who perhaps use English differently. It was during that time that another editor (Graham somebody) added the stuf on asserting facts explicitly as "another attempt to explain the policy" (and it was crystal clear that "explain the policy" meant "explain the NPOV policy")
This is the original NPOV policy:
Now, I to go back to the spirit of our 2001 discussions, I think adding anything that makes the above easier to understand by people who do not speak American English is a good idea but let us be clear that the above is our benchmark, the question is: do edits to the policy page help people better understand the above, or confuse people as to the above? Slrubenstein | Talk 11:53, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
The proposal to completely remove ASF seems to change (possibly even eliminate) the long-standing policies in the ASF section. If we're going to eliminate one of the purposes of WP:ASF, then I'd think it'd be worthy to have a broader discussion (probably a RFC) specifically on that topic first. So far no logical reason has been given to drastically change or even eliminate core ASF policy. QuackGuru ( talk) 00:27, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Could someone briefly summarize the discussion? This has always been an odd sentence, but attempts to fix it have met with resistance. "Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By 'fact' we mean 'a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute'."
Two problems with the above:
(a) A fact is simply a true proposition; something that is the case (leaving aside the complexities that philosophers get into). Whether it's in dispute or not is irrelevant.
(b) Most of what we do on Wikipedia is assert opinions about facts, not facts about opinions. I can see what the passage is trying to say (it is trying to say "cite your sources," because it is a fact that A says X, even if A and X are wrong), but it has it exactly upside down.
So it would be good to fix it at last, but I wouldn't want to do anything to weaken its spirit. SlimVirgin talk contribs 03:56, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
@SlimVirgin, if you read the 'earliest' version, you can see that what it was trying to say was exactly 'don't say Elvis is King, say Col. Parker says Elvis is king. You can also see that it was put in because the original policy was written by putting together the favourite versions of several people, which is why its a bit of a contradictory dogs breakfast today.
@ Stephen B Streater, too short, too short. "State information which is uncontroversial within the subject" would remove half the information from wikipedia. Also, NPOV is a bit more than 'give appropriate balance.' It requires an editor not to add information in a way that is heavily slanted to one viewpoint, and also to work with others to create a balanced view. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 07:44, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
What we want to achieve is clear policies which people read, understand and implement. Kotniski is right about core policies and essays. Important core policies on what to write should be in a single accessible place, and be brief and concise. All the archetypal debates and long detailed descriptions (which I can guarantee most editors never read) should be put in essays. Wikipedia:Avoid instruction creep is worth a read. Stephen B Streater ( talk) 08:04, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
I've added something, [5] partly based on Elen's suggestion:
Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question.
Where there is disagreement about a view, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that ..."— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch.
Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion.
Thoughts? SlimVirgin talk contribs 08:46, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes" cos he didn't – he presented an argument that apes and humans have common descent from a shared ancestor. Have restored It would give a false impression of parity to state that "according to Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust was a program of extermination of the Jewish people in Germany, but David Irving disputes this analysis", assigning both the supermajority view and a tiny minority view to a single activist in the field. Doubtless other useful and possibly essential nuances have gone missing in these changes, but that struck me immediately. . . dave souza, talk 09:26, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
While I'm tightening, I continued and merged the first few subsections, which were very repetitive. So instead of three very long subsections, it now reads:
The neutral point of view is a way of dealing with conflicting perspectives. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views as found in reliable sources be presented in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV".
The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as found in reliable sources. Articles should describe different points of view without endorsing any of them. It may describe the criticism of particular viewpoints found in reliable sources, but it should not take sides.
Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question. Where there is disagreement about a view, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that"— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch.
Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion.
SlimVirgin talk contribs 09:28, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Old | New |
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==Explanation of the neutral point of view==
The neutral point of view is a means of dealing with conflicting perspectives on a topic as evidenced by reliable sources. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views be presented fairly, in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Therefore, material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV", although it may be shortened, moved to a new article, or even removed entirely on the grounds that it gives undue weight to a minor point of view, as explained below. The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject, nor does it endorse or oppose specific viewpoints. It is not a lack of viewpoint, but is rather a specific, editorially neutral, point of view. An article should clearly describe, represent, and characterize all the disputes within a topic, but should not endorse any particular point of view. It should explain who believes what, and why, and which points of view are most common. It may contain critical evaluations of particular viewpoints based on reliable sources, but even text explaining sourced criticisms of a particular view must avoid taking sides. ===Bias=== Neutrality requires that views be represented without bias. All editors and reliable sources have biases (in other words, all editors and all sources have a point of view)—what matters is how we combine the views of the sources to create a neutral article. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as published by those sources. ===Facts and opinions=== Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By " fact" we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." For example, that a survey produced a certain published result would be a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things, so we assert as many of them as possible. A fact can be asserted without simon-says inline-text phrasing. An opinion can be attributed to so-and-so said. By value or opinion, [1] on the other hand, we mean "a matter which is subject to dispute." There are many propositions that very clearly express values or opinions. That stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That The Beatles were the greatest band in history is an opinion. That the United States is the only country in the world that has used a nuclear weapon during wartime is a fact. That the United States was right or wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion. However, there are bound to be borderline cases (see Undue weight) where it is not clear if a particular dispute should be taken seriously and included. When we discuss an opinion, we attribute the opinion to someone and discuss the fact that they have this opinion. For instance, rather than asserting that "The Beatles were the greatest band ever", locate a source such as Rolling Stone magazine and say: "Rolling Stone said that the Beatles were the greatest band ever", and include a reference to the issue in which that statement was made. Likewise, the statement "Most people from Liverpool believe that the Beatles were the greatest band ever" can be made if it can be supported by references to a particular survey; a claim such as "The Beatles had many songs that made the UK Singles Chart" can also be made, because it is verifiable as fact. The first statement asserts a personal opinion; the second asserts the fact that an opinion exists and attributes it to reliable sources. In attributing competing views, it is necessary to ensure that the attribution adequately reflects the relative levels of support for those views, and that it does not give a false impression of parity. For example, to state that "according to Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust was a program of extermination of the Jewish people in Germany, but David Irving disputes this analysis" would be to give apparent parity between the supermajority view and a tiny minority view by assigning each to a single activist in the field. It is not sufficient to discuss an opinion as fact merely by stating "some people believe...", a practice referred to as "mass attribution". [2] A reliable source supporting a statement that a group holds an opinion must accurately describe how large this group is. Moreover, there are usually disagreements about how opinions should be properly stated. To fairly represent all the leading views in a dispute it is sometimes necessary to qualify the description of an opinion, or to present several formulations of this opinion and attribute them to specific groups. A careful selection of reliable sources is also critical for producing articles with a neutral point of view. When discussing the facts on which a point of view is based, it is important to also include the facts on which competing opinions are based since this helps a reader evaluate the credibility of the competing viewpoints. This should be done without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It is also important to make it clear who holds these opinions. It is often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.
|
==Explanation of the neutral point of view==
The neutral point of view is a way of dealing with conflicting perspectives. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views as found in reliable sources be presented in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV". The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as found in reliable sources. Articles should describe different points of view without endorsing any of them. It may describe the criticism of particular viewpoints found in reliable sources, but it should not take sides. Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question. Where a statement is controversial or subjective, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that"— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch. Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion. |
SlimVirgin talk contribs 09:35, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
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.
Withdrawn by proposer. Wrong time, wrong place, and too complicated for the participants.—Preceding unsigned comment added by
BullRangifer - 04:02, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Rfctag
Proposal:
I'd like to add direct wikilinks to Category:Pseudoscience at three spots in the section entitled Pseudoscience and related fringe theories. No change of wording is proposed and thus no change of policy. To ensure that misunderstandings can't be used against me, I'll make it clear that this entails decisions about the (1) intent of the existing wording, and approval of the (2) addition of a wikilink in three spots. Please weigh in. -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:52, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
Background:
In the section entitled Pseudoscience and related fringe theories, four guidelines are listed. The introduction immediately before the guidelines and the first two guidelines contain wording regarding "categorize" as pseudoscience. If I recall the Pseudoscience ArbCom correctly (and the wordings of the first two guidelines came directly from it ( Guideline 1 and Guideline 2), this wording refers to the use of Category:Pseudoscience. Not all editors may realize that this was and is the intended meaning, and I'd like to add category wikilinks in the appropriate places to make this intention explicitly clear.
Here is the current wording: (bolding added)
What this will look like with the wikilinks:
This doesn't represent any change of policy or any change of wording, but only makes the original intention of ArbCom and the current intention of this policy clearer. That whole section isn't so much about defining pseudoscience, but about how we are to present, describe, classify, and categorize pseudoscience at Wikipedia, which obviously includes how we use Category:Pseudoscience.
What think ye? -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:52, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
Crum375 has now twice reverted edits approved by a consensus. I have explained it on their talk page, but they reverted again without doing their homework. That's edit warring. From their talkpage:
Reverting without reading edit summaries and checking to see if they are true is disruptive. Their edit summary proves they didn't do their homework, because it is factually incorrect:
Obviously the consensus in a very notable RfC on this page approved of using this reference in this manner.
Crum375 happens to be one of the few editors who !voted against the clear consensus in two RfCs on this subject, and I fear this is clouding their judgment. Maybe they should leave it alone and see how editors who don't have such a COI deal with this. Editing against consensus isn't very wikipedian. It's disruptive edit warring. -- Brangifer ( talk) 03:55, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
From the RfC: "Please weigh in on whether a statement by the National Science Foundation is a reliable source to use as an illustration for a portion of an ArbCom statement used in the NPOV policy." Further down in the introduction I make it even more clear.... "I would like to add an example as a reference in the Pseudoscience and related fringe theories section. This section contains wording from the ArbCom ruling on the treatment of pseudoscience." I then created a very clear example of exactly what I was proposing. If you missed it, that's not my fault. I was very, very clear. -- Brangifer ( talk) 04:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
It's rather (un)remarkable, that those who object !voted against the RfC, so no real objection is being raised here. If those who !voted for the RfC objected, then we'd have to start another RfC over this small bit of improvement. Only those who objected before are objecting now, ergo the negatives remain unchanged, and the positives remain unchanged. Status quo. -- Brangifer ( talk) 05:52, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
As an aside, why were arbcom findings deprecated? I personally would think that these are the most pertinent references, I mean really, why are we referring to outside sources for our policy? Unomi ( talk) 16:35, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
The first of several questions suggested by Crum375 as a way to resolve the dispute. In order to help work towards a consensus, please limit yourself to a statement on this issue and keep any threaded discussion for the discussion section (or elsewhere on this page as appropriate). Shell babelfish 16:45, 16 March 2010 (UTC) -- Just to clarify, you're welcome to put your reasoning with your answer, but limit replies to other people's reasoning or other discussion to the discussion section (sorry about the confusion!) Shell babelfish 17:44, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I don't know if this is the correct page. Couldn't find a way to search the archives. (Yes. It's "easy" if you know how! Maybe a reminder could be placed at the top of the page?)
Realized that "million" which I have been placing in a lot of articles is ambiguous. UK (and others?) use it differently than Americans. Should this word be verboten? Student7 ( talk) 13:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Closed There are too many somewhat related contentious debates open at this time. There seems to be consensus to postpone this discussion. Hans Adler 14:36, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
Inspired by, but separate from the specific debates above.... I think we need to discuss how NPOV applies to categorization in more depth. NPOV mentions categories or categorization in two sections: WP:UNDUE (in passing), and WP:PSCI (repeatedly).
For its part, WP:CAT links to NPOV once... saying: Categorizations appear on pages without annotations or referencing to justify or explain their addition; editors should be conscious of the need to maintain a neutral point of view when creating categories or adding them to articles. Categorizations should generally be uncontroversial; if the category's topic is likely to spark controversy, then a list article (which can be annotated and referenced) is probably more appropriate.
I think everyone would agree that categories can be misused to push POV agendas, and that this is something we want to prevent... the question is where and how should we discuss this. As I said above, categories are navigation tools and not article content, and so properly fall outside the scope of this policy. At this point, I am not proposing any specific changes to either policy... I just think some discussion on the issue is called for. Please share your thoughts. Blueboar ( talk) 14:51, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
As discussed, I am Closing this thread for now. Blueboar ( talk) 14:28, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
Someone on a talk page mis-understood this sentence Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By "fact" we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." to mean that an assertion of fact did not need a reference, even though a couple other editors explained it did need one. I think you have to make it clear at top of the section, instead of the bottom, that reliable sources are needed. Part of the confusion is that you mix two examples that don't need referencing (Mars and Plato) with one that clearly could produce disagreement ("a survey produced a certain published result"). Now unless I am mis-understanding the meaning of the section myself - and someone would need to clarify it in that case, I'll change it to end possible confusion. Thoughts?? CarolMooreDC ( talk) 13:46, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
Unnecessary attribution is a violation of WP:ASF policy when no serious dispute exists among reliable sources (an objective fact that is not a serious dispute). WP:ASF does not require in-text attribution for information where there is no serious dispute. Requiring in-text attribution for widespread consensus of reliable sources on the grounds that it is "opinion" would allow a contrarian reader to insist on in-text attribution for material about which there is no serious dispute, using the argument that the material is an "opinion". This would mean, in the end, that all material in Wikipedia would require in-text attribution, even if only one Wikipedia editor insisted on it, which is not the intent of WP:ASF or of WP:CONSENSUS. QuackGuru ( talk) 07:03, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
"Adding inline-text attribution is unnecessary when the information is not seriously disputed among reliable sources." I think this will work. QuackGuru ( talk) 21:33, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
After coming back a few days later I see this issue more clearly and propose:
Hearing no dissent, I'll for for it! CarolMooreDC ( talk) 03:31, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I've rewritten a little, because as it stood it appeared to be an NPOV and NOR violation. It now says essentially the same thing, but is streamlined a little, and it stresses the need for reliable sources. Before and after. The "after" version is:
==Fringe theories==
When discussing fringe views, any mention of them should be proportionate, making clear which is the dominant majority view among reliable sources, and which the minority view. Topics that represent tiny-minority views should be discussed in articles devoted to them. Examples of these are forms of historical revisionism that reliable sources widely regard as lacking evidence—or actively ignoring it—such as Holocaust denial or claims that the Apollo moon landing was faked.
===Pseudoscience===
When discussing topics that reliable sources say are pseudoscientific, editors should be careful not to present those views alongside the scientific consensus as though they are equal but opposing views. While pseudoscience may in some cases be significant to an article, it should not obfuscate the description of the main views. Topics that may be added to the pseudoscience category include the following:
- 1. Obviously bogus ideas: Obviously bogus theories such as Time Cube may be described as pseudoscience if reliable sources concur.
- 2. Generally considered pseudoscience: Theories which have a following, such as astrology, but which are generally considered pseudoscience by the scientific community may also be described as pseudoscience if reliable sources concur.
The following should not be added to the category, even if there are reliable sources for the claim:
- 3. Theories with a substantial and respectable following: Established ideas and practices such as psychoanalysis, which some critics allege are pseudoscientific but which also attract an academic following, may contain the view that they are pseudoscientific if it is reliably sourced, but the claim should not be added to the lead or highlighted unduly, and should not be included without qualification.
- 4. Alternative theoretical formulations: Alternative theoretical formulations from within the scientific community, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics as opposed to dark matter, which are part of the scientific process. Such theoretical formulations may fail to explain some aspect of reality, but should they succeed will be rapidly accepted. For instance, the theory of continental drift was heavily criticized because there was no known mechanism for it, and thus the evidence in its favor was dismissed. When the mechanism was discovered, it became mainstream as plate tectonics.
I still think it could use a bit of work, as it seems to encourage adding "pseudoscience" when the thing was never meant to be science in the first place, but at least if we stress the need for reliable sources that may go some way toward alleviating that. SlimVirgin TALK contribs 13:59, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
I don't care for the changes to the "Obviously bogus ideas" section. The new wording does not say essentially the same thing as before. Maybe that's OK as the older version may have violated WP:OR and/or WP:NPOV. But the new wording doesn't make much sense. There's now a qualifier about reliable sources. AFAIK there are no reliable sources that explicitly say TimeCube is pseudoscience. So, it's kind of a bad example. Also, if reliable sources are required, what's the point of titling the section as "Obviously bogus"? I used to understand what this section meant. Now I don't. It seems to be a wholesale departure from what it used to mean. A Quest For Knowledge ( talk) 20:50, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
I'm splitting off the section, here. Maurreen ( talk) 09:42, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
1. The lead has been changed from:
to:
I think the "other encyclopedic content" (or some variation) needs to be restored because categories, templates, and probably other things that aren't articles, could easily be cast in a POV manner. My guess is that the original wording is suggesting that there should be no attempt to apply WP:NPOV to what editors write on a talk page (although WP:BLP and other policies do restrict discussions), but categories and so on must comply with WP:NPOV.
2. The following paragraph has been omitted from the Pseudoscience section:
I think this should be retained as a very useful explanation of the distinction. It's all very well to say that we rely purely on reliable sources without thinking, but the above para is helpful in practice to explain the general strategy that should be applied (subject to reliable sources). Johnuniq ( talk) 00:41, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
While we're at it I wouldn't mind removing the religion section too, for the same reasons. I think these were sections that were on the FAQ page, which really wasn't an appropriate thing to have policy status, and when it was decided to get rid of it, these sections were moved back here. This page should deal with general principles; particular examples are fine but they shouldn't develop into whole sections. The section says:
In the case of human beliefs and practices, Wikipedia content should not only encompass what motivates individuals who hold these beliefs and practices, but also account for how such beliefs and practices developed. Wikipedia articles on history and religion draw from a religion's sacred texts as well as from modern archaeological, historical, and scientific sources.
Some adherents of a religion might object to a critical historical treatment of their own faith because in their view such analysis discriminates against their religious beliefs. Their point of view must be mentioned if it can be documented by independent reliable sources, yet note that there is no contradiction. NPOV policy means that Wikipedia editors ought to try to write sentences like this: "Certain adherents of this faith (say which) believe X, and also believe that they have always believed X; however, due to the findings (say which) of modern historians and archaeologists (say which), other adherents (say which) of this faith now believe Z."
Several words that have very specific meanings in studies of religion have different meanings in less formal contexts, e.g. fundamentalism and mythology. Wikipedia articles about religious topics should take care to use these words only in their formal senses in order to avoid causing unnecessary offense or misleading the reader. Conversely, editors should not avoid using terminology that has been established by the majority of the current reliable and note worthy sources on a topic out of sympathy for a particular point of view, or concern that readers may confuse the formal and informal meanings. Details about some particular terms can be found at words to avoid.
SlimVirgin TALK contribs 16:55, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view. There is a proposal to remove two topic-specific sections, one on pseudoscience, the other on religion, so that the policy provides only a general overview. Fresh eyes would be appreciated.
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
Possible problem. See essay Wikipedia:Reliable_source_examples#Religious_sources, which suggests recognizing some religious sources as reliable in some contexts. It might be necessary for the policy page to make clear what counts as scholarship. Peter jackson ( talk) 10:42, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable on a talk page as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
However, there is an additional question in regards to WP:PSCI. As the language in this section is derived directly from an important arb-com ruling, would it be better to save that language by moving it to some other policy or guideline page, such as WP:FRINGE?
Thoughts? (and if this is more or less the right idea... feel free to tweek it) Blueboar ( talk) 21:23, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
A neutral point of view should not promote any idea beyond its prominence in verifiable reliable sources, nor disparage it for not having gained more prominence. Ideas should be described impartially to the extent possible, reflecting the available sources. Editors will often advocate for particular points of view on talk pages - this is natural and unavoidable - and such advocacy is acceptable on a talk page as part of building a broader consensus. Advocacy of that sort, however, should never extend to article space.
A neutral point of view is careful never to promote, salvage, or otherwise foster any idea beyond its prominence in scholarly discourse, and it is careful never to denigrate, refute, or otherwise disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas are described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors often wish to advocate positions they feel strongly about, but we should never allow our personal views to bias our editing.
A neutral point of view should not promote any idea beyond its prominence in verifiable reliable sources, and not disparage such ideas for not having gained more prominence. Ideas should be described impartially to the extent possible, given the full range of sources available. Editors often wish to advocate positions they feel strongly about, but we should never allow our personal views to bias our editing.
I really like the language that we are working on, and I think we should definitely incorporate it into the policy... but... it reads like a general statement of what NPOV is all about. Something that belongs in the first few paragraphs of the policy rather than as a replacement for the PSCI and RNPOV sections. Thoughts? Blueboar ( talk) 14:02, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Given the comments above, I propose the following language for the RfC:
Does this accurately portray the question in a neutral tone? Blueboar ( talk) 12:55, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view. There is a proposal to remove two topic-specific sections, one on pseudoscience, the other on religion, so that the policy provides only a general overview.
Basically the same issues are discussed in the "Article titles" section of this page, and at WP:Article titles#Descriptive titles and neutrality. To avoid duplication and the difficulties of maintaining the same text in two places, would it seem a sensible approach to do a brief summary of the principles here, and the details at WP:AT?-- Kotniski ( talk) 19:10, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
I favour greatly reducing this section. Much of the first and last paragraphs are waffle. And note that this policy needn't guide readers all the way to choosing a title; it need only guide readers to the point of recognising which candidate titles are acceptable per this NPOV policy. They may find ten such candidates, in which case it is up to WP:AT to guide them to choose the most appropriate one.
I propose the following:
When there is no consensus amongst neutral reliable sources on how to refer to a topic, a descriptive title is constructed. Neutrality is especially important in these cases because it ensures that article topics are placed in the proper context, preventing the article title itself from becoming a source of contention and polarization. Therefore descriptive titles are expected to exhibit the highest degree of neutrality."
In fact, thinking about this some more, it would actually make sense for this page not to have a section on article titles per se, but on the terms we use to name things (which includes article titles as well as section titles and the way we refer to things in article text). Then we can refer people to WP:AT for issues that apply specifically to article titles.-- Kotniski ( talk) 12:57, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
I believe that the guidance specifically about article titles should be on the article titles page, and that guidance more generally about neutrality in naming (which seems to be absent at the moment, though it shouldn't be, since it keeps coming up in various contexts) should be on this page. The present setup is somewhat messy, illogical and incomplete. A draft as to how to do this is at User:Kotniski/Neu - comments and co-editing are welcome there.-- Kotniski ( talk) 10:20, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
Dear Sir/Madam, I observed that the articles on Christianiy, Islam, Hinduism, Osteopathy, Naturopathy,
Chiropractic etc. are good and positive and there are forks to the articles on Christianiy,
Islam and Hinduism which contain all the criticism. The article on Homeopathy as well as
its fork for criticism (' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Homeopathy/Criticism'), on the
other hand, are both negative and bad; so can we make the article on Homeopathy good and
positive like all the other articles and put all the criticism on its fork? If there's a
rule that both articles should be full of criticism, then we must make the matter in the
criticism fork available in the main article for Christianiy, Islam and Hinduism also. Thanking you, Yours faithfully, Dr.Vittal ( talk) 05:01, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
I have a couple of concerns on the recently vigorously edited fringe section.
The changes which removed science as the unique source to NPOV seem reasonable at first sight. I like the shorter section. But science when correctly carried out is by its very nature NPOV, ruthlessly discarding old theories when better one come along. And NPOV procedures like this result in science. Is it worth mentioning something about science (or the scientific method) lest we slip back into an age of superstition and "revealed Truth" unchallenged?
Stephen B Streater ( talk) 21:14, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
In an article about some topic raising disputes among scholars. It can be article about climate change, historical event, philosophical position, political movement. While using some author as a source. Is it important what position author holds regarding the subject, is it important to mention that position in the article, and what rules regulate that? Thanks! -- windyhead ( talk) 20:06, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
So may we somehow process to make changes to the rule? What the addition could be? -- windyhead ( talk) 12:41, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
So how about this addition to Attributing and specifying biased statements section: If the author is known to adhere to (to hold) some position on a subject he's discussing, and there is a reliable source for that, it is good the author's position to be mentioned. Please improve. -- windyhead ( talk) 10:24, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
almost-instinct says on Wikipedia_talk:Quotations#Unable_To_Post: "For the biogs sections I chose quotes that had some relevence to that section of Larkin's life. The other quotes are from popular poems and can stand alone."
We already have an article listing of Philip Larkin's Poems.
His choice of quotes is representing a certain point of view, specifically his, and using thisthese quotes creates an opinion that wikipedia endorses. These quotes should be moved to wikiquote. Can we get more feedback?
96.52.92.106 (
talk) 03:46, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
To quote SlimVirgin above a general content policy is not the place to discuss specific content issues in depth Discuss this on the talk page of the article, as it seems to be primarily a content dispute. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 12:14, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
Comments requested as to whether it is appropriate for a broad policy to discuss issues that relate to only one specific topic area. There are currently two topic-specific sections in the NPOV policy that do this: WP:PSCI (relating only to pseudoscience) and WP:RNPOV (relating only to religion). It is proposed that these sections be removed. It is further proposed that the section on pseudoscience should be merged into WP:FRINGE. - Blueboar ( talk) 19:50, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
Secondly, the pseudoscience section comes straight from ArbCom, and while I have no problem linking to an ArbCom case, or repeating a decision in a behavioral policy, I'm not comfortable about quoting them at length in a content policy, and I doubt if the ArbCom intended to be so quoted.
Finally, a general content policy is not the place to discuss specific content issues in depth; both the pseudoscience and religion sections would be more appropriate elsewhere, e.g. WP:FRINGE for pseudoscience. SlimVirgin talk contribs 06:44, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
OK... I have moved the pseudoscience section to WP:FRINGE as per the suggestion. Before I remove the Religion section, we need to think... is there a home for it somewhere else... can we move it or should it be simply deleted? Blueboar ( talk) 22:16, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
-
In the definition of a fact in WP:ASF, I don't think we mean "about which there is no dispute". Many facts are disputed (like evolution or the existence of the gas chambers); that doesn't stop us asserting them. -- Kotniski ( talk) 08:28, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Forcing changes without consensus to core Wikipedia policy is acceptable. These massive changes changed the meaning of ASF. I restored ASF to the last consensus version. ASF is not about fact-requiring-sources vs. fact-not-requiring-sources. It is about a fact v. an opinion. It is not about WP:V. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:45, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Kotniski, I specifically rejected your suggestion to rewrite entire policy. Why are you rewriting ASF without a discussion first. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:00, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
The edit did not match the edit summary. The edit summary was surely this is what it's trying to say?. Kotniski deleted a significant part of ASF policy without explanation. QuackGuru ( talk) 17:43, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
I get the sense that this discussion is off a little bit. I see no point to a discussion of fact vs. opinion - the distinction as such is irrelevant to Wikipedia, there are only views. I suspect that the cause of confusion here is that the issue (with fact) is not whether it is highly disputed, somewhat disputed, or accepted. I think the important issue is "by whom?" What makes evolution a "fact" is that all major biologists accept it. That matters. That fundamentalist Christians do not accept it matters too, which is why Wikipedia presents the article on creationism with the same neutraility as it presents the article on evolution. My point is, there are few if any "facts" that everyone in the world agree on. But there is a big difference between something that all biologists accept and no fundamentalist Christian accepts, and something that biologists are divided on, and fundamentalists are divided on. In short, we treat something as a fact when all the views we agree need to be represented in the article accept it as such. But it is still a view, it is just a view that is shared by all stakeholders in the given article. Slrubenstein | Talk 20:30, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
The argument between Zaereth and Elen of the Roads (or anyone with a solid grounding in science) as to whether evolution is a fact or not demonstrates the wisdom of our NPOV policy quite nicely. Of course evolution is a fact, and Zaereth doesn't know what the difference is between a theory and an opinion. But ask Zaereth and she will say that I am the one who is full of crap. So we could go endlessly in circles, "I am write," "No, I am right" ... or we can comply with Wikipedia policy, specifically this one, NPOV, and say that there are just views. There is a consensus among scientists that evolution is a fact. Do you see what I have done? I have ascribed this view to the people who hold the view. And by implication it is now clear that we are talking about views, because at Wikipedia that is all there are, views held by different people. Scientists are of the view that evolution is a fact. Fundamentalists are of the view that it is an opinion. See my point? It doesn't matter whther we call it a fact or an opinion, because both of those are views. What does matter is identifying whose view, because depending on whose view we are talking about it is a fact, or an opinion. It is obviously both, in that diferent groups hold both views. If you cannot live with this, you do not belong at Wikipedia. Go find another soapbox. Slrubenstein | Talk 23:34, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
Notification:The suggestion to completely rewrite or cut in half ASF seems to change (possibly even eliminate) the long-standing policies in the ASF section. If we're going to eliminate one of the purposes of WP:ASF, then I'd think it'd be worthy to have a broader discussion (probably a RFC) specifically on that topic first. So far no logical reason has been given to drastically change core ASF policy. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:06, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the nonbias policy: assert
facts, including facts about opinions--but don't assert opinions themselves.
By "fact," on the one hand, we mean "a piece of information about which
there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a
certain published result is a fact. That Mars is a planet is a fact.
That 2+2=4 is a fact. That Socrates was a philosopher is a fact. No one
seriously disputes any of these things. So Wikipedians can feel free to
assert as many of them as we can. By "opinion," on the other hand, we
mean "a piece of information about which there is some serious dispute."
There's bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should
take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that
very clearly express opinions. That God exists is an opinion. That the
Beatles were the greatest rock and roll group is an opinion. That
intuitionistic logic is superior to ordinary logic is an opinion. That the
United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
is an opinion.
This is the first paragraph from early years Wikipedia policy when Larry Sanger was editing. QuackGuru ( talk) 02:33, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Richard Dawkins, a hard-headed scientist, in his book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, goes on at quite some length in his first chapter, titled "Only a theory", about treating a scientific theory as fact, quoting two senses of the word Theory from the OED:
Theory, Sense 1: A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.
Theory, sense 2: A hypothesis proposed as an explanation; hence, a mere hypothesis, speculation, conjecture; an idea or set of ideas about something; an individual view or notion.
He goes on to name Heliocentrism and Evolution as two examples of theories where the Sense 1 definition applies.
I saw a WP talk page remark recently saying that in the statement "When a gold-leaf electroscope is charged, the leaves separate because the like charges on the two leaves cause them to repel one another.", the portion prior to the word because is fact, and the rest is scientific opinion. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 01:49, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
This isn't helped by dividing the material between three separate pages (NPOV, V, NOR). But whatever it is we want to say, we need to say it clearly. As far as my edit goes, as far as I can tell no-one's actually raised any objections to it - it doesn't change the substance of what was written, just makes it shorter and clearer (though doubtless it could be further improved). In fact I think we should tear up these three pages as currently written, since there is no agreement among editors even on what they mean (and hence they are quite unhelpful and misleading to the newcomers for whom they are intended), and work on writing something clear that all reasonable editors will understand and agree on. But meanwhile, I think those of you who revert changes just because they "need consensus" (and without specifying what objection you have to them) have no idea how Wikipedia works. That attitude is probably responsible for the pitiful state these pages have got into - incomprehensible text isn't allowed to be touched because it's sacred, so eventually such text overruns the whole page. (OK it's not all that bad, but really, this is one of the most key policies, and there shouldn't be anything unclear or meaningless on the page.)-- Kotniski ( talk) 05:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
The point of the section is to inform new readers of the sort of thing they should be doing, not to try and specify every action in every case. How about a new section, perhaps called A simple formulation, which looks like this. The detailed version being discussed here could then be added below by means of explanation for those who need it. We could fix the wording common knowledge to take into account Zaereth's point, but this gist is that referencing every trivial facts clutters up articles. Stephen B Streater ( talk) 07:01, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
I think we're getting in a tangle because we're not thinking about why we are referring to common knowledge. It's not because its easily verifiable, it's because it is beyond dispute. The whole thrust of ASF is that unless something is beyond dispute, the article must retain an overall neutral approach to presenting the information, because there will be differing views (I'm favouring Slrubenstein on this - I don't think differentiating between 'fact' and 'opinion' is particularly helpful). Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:00, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
So perhaps something like:-
Some article content is common knowledge - water is wet, for example - and can just be stated. However, for most subjects, the likelihood is that there is more than one view on them. Editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only view (the Flailing Hairnets are the best band to come out of Swindon in years). Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view presented comes from and how well established is (a poll in NME voted the Flailing Hairnets the best band to come out of Swindon in years), and including information on alternative views when these exist (in Radio 6 'Band of the Month' polls, listeners voted the Flailing Hairnets sixth in three consecutive months).
It can then go on to advice on
etc Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:13, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Second attempt: Some article content is common knowledge. Other content is not disputed - all the sources give the same answer. However, where there is more than one view on the content, editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only one, or insist that their view should be the only one in the article. Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view you want to present comes from, how well established is, and what the alternative views are. Reliable sources should be used, as well as talkpage discussion, to ensure that overall the article has a balanced presentation of all the views.
I'd then give a list of do's and don'ts, rather than paragraphs of information. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 11:48, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
I have been trying my best to read the above, but may have still missed something crucial. As far as I see it, we should not distinguish, or even try to define, "fact" or "opinion". From WP's point of view, per WP:V and WP:NOR, anything which we write must be attributable to a reliable source. If anything is challenged or likely to be challenged, or quoted, we must cite an inline source. If the material is the common view by all reliable sources, i.e. "asserted", then it generally needs no attribution, though it still needs to be attributable. If the material is contentious, there should be in-text attribution, i.e. "X says Y". Other cases can have just an inline citation as appropriate. I think trying to add definitions of "facts" and "opinions" only adds unnecessary confusion. Crum375 ( talk) 13:26, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Where there is more than one view on the content of an article, editors must be careful not to represent their view as if it were the only one, or insist that their view should be the only one in the article. Articles must present a neutral point of view, and this means being clear about where the view you want to present comes from, how well established is, and what the alternative views are. Reliable sources should be used to ensure that overall the article has a balanced presentation of all the views.
Do not
Do
More could be said, I'm sure Elen of the Roads ( talk) 13:53, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
@Kotniski, it is surprising how often what one thinks of as 'fact' turns out to be no such thing. Documents are missing, eyewitness testimonies are contradictory, governments are suspected of doctoring figures, maps are misleading, instructions are vague. No-one can agree with 'factual' certainty on the governmental status of Gibralter (just go look at the talk page - it got so violent it ended at ArbCom). How can that be? Because there are two absolutely rock solid reliable sources (the UN and the UK Government) that contradict each other. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 16:10, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
A few editors seem to not understand what this sentence means. It has nothing at all to do with WP:V. It is about attributing to so-and-so said. It is about asserting a fact without in-text attribution and for an opinion do not assert it but instead use in-text attribution when there is a serious dispute. In-text attribution is not V. In-text attribution is so-and-so said. This is a case by case basis for each article and not set in stone. Although this policy is not specifically about V controversial text still must ber verified.
This is a proposal for Facts and opinions (ASF): "In Wikipedia most facts, except the most obvious ones - like “Mars is a planet” and “Plato was a philosopher” - must be verified through a reliable source regardless if it is a truthful statement." If editors want to include information about V to avoid confusion we can include this sentence. I made this proposal based on this comment. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:24, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
On Wikipedia we most certainly do distinguish between facts and opinions. If you disagree then you want to eliminate core ASF policy. Attributable to a reliable source and in-text attribution are different points. Do you understand there is a difference or are you thoroughly confused. QuackGuru ( talk) 16:42, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
(ec) There is no "ASF" policy. The ASF section in NPOV is an island of confusion, which doesn't say anything intelligible. At best it repeats what's already in NPOV and other policies. All material on WP must be attributable to a reliable source. An inline citation is required if the material is challenged, or likely to challenged, or a quote. An in-text attribution is recommended if the material is contentious. There is no need to classify material into categories of "fact", "fiction", "truth", "opinion", "idea" or whatever. All such classifications do is add confusion among editors. Crum375 ( talk) 16:52, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Quack. Do you want to say "all controversial material must be cited" or "don't add opinions as if they were Gospel"? It doesn't matter whether you call it a fact or a teapot - if someone disputes the information it requires a citation, if Gordon Brown says Labour are the greatest, I can't put "labour are the greatest" in the article. "Show clearly when you are reporting on a particular view, and be clear about whose view it is " (quoting myself) would appear to cover it. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 17:38, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Start at WP:NPOVN which is specifically for reporting NPOV issues. If he's edit warring to maintain his version, you could report him for it. You could start an RfC. Or try WP:FTN if the view he is promoting is at all fringe. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 22:54, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
(ec)Crum375 seems to have a clear and consistent understanding of Wikipedia policy, and frankly, i do not understand many of the comments others have made. Above, Zaereth (who I am sure has made countless good edits to the encyclopedia) wrote, "A fact is information that can be verified or documented. It is known to be true. On the other hand, opinions are personal beliefs, views, or judgements." This is simply not true. Yes, facts can be verified. But so can opinions. It is verifiable that Ronald Reagan thought the Soviet Union evil. It is verifiable that George Bush thought Iran, Iraq, and North Korea evil. The distinction is not between one thing that can be verified and one thing that cannot be verified, the difference is between something that may verifiably be claimed by only one person, and another thing that is claimed by all members of the AAAS, and another thing that is claimed by all human beings.
Above, Quack pushes the following absurd policy: "In Wikipedia most facts, except the most obvious ones - like “Mars is a planet” and “Plato was a philosopher” - must be verified through a reliable source regardless if it is a truthful statement." This is not our policy, and if you think it is fixing something, I tell you, it is not broken. According to our Vpolicy, all views in Wikipedia must be verifiable - not verified, but verifiable or as Crum correctly put it, "attributable." Now, which views actually must be verivied? Controversial ones. Controversial where? Well, on the article talk page. The only practical way forward is if we take the people participating on the talk page to represent a community of people with overlapping intrerests and knowledge. If there is something NONE of them consider controversial, it will naturally be added to or remain in the article without a citation. it has to be possible to find a citation, but no one has to. One day someone comes and deltes something saying it is wrong. Yes, they can even delete the sentence, Plato was a philosopher. Suddenly it is controversial. Well, now you have to provide a citation (if it is so obvious, it should be very easy to find a reliable source). If the new editor still claims Plato was not a philosopher, you don't say "Go away!" You follow our policy: ask that person to present a reliable source. If she does, we rewrite the article, to include both (even though they contradict) views: Some say Plato was a philosopher (lots of cites), some say he was not (some cites) or whatever. Thi sis how it works and Quack's proposed policy only takes a clear an dsimple to follow rule and turns it into something that will promote confusion and conflict.
There is no policy on facts and opinions. There is an NPOV policy and this paragraph was added to try to explain it. Whoever wrote it did not do a great job, thus all the wasted electrons here. Delete it, revise it, but let's stick to our actual policies, NPOV and V: verifiability, not truth, and all significant views from reliable sources go in. These are principles all can follow. Slrubenstein | Talk 23:23, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
In my opinion, the ASF section as it stands is essentially an essay embedded inside a policy page. As Elen noted above, although its intent was probably benign originally, the end result was unneeded confusion, as can be seen in the above threads. I suggest that we remove this section, and if there is to be any replacement, it should be carefully thought out and agreed upon on this talk page. At the moment, I see nothing in that section which is not covered in the rest of the NPOV page or elsewhere. I believe removing this section will improve NPOV and eliminate many needless arguments. Crum375 ( talk) 23:56, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Original ASF policy. |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
We sometimes give an alternative formulation of the nonbias policy: assert facts, including facts about opinions--but don't assert opinions themselves. By "fact," on the one hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." In this sense, that a survey produced a certain published result is a fact. That the Mars is a planet is a fact. That 2+2=4 is a fact. That Socrates was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things. So Wikipedians can feel free to assert as many of them as we can. By "opinion," on the other hand, we mean "a piece of information about which there is some serious dispute." There's bound to be borderline cases where we're not sure if we should take a particular dispute seriously; but there are many propositions that very clearly express opinions. That God exists is an opinion. That the Beatles were the greatest rock and roll group is an opinion. That intuitionistic logic is superior to ordinary logic is an opinion. That the United States was wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an opinion.
not matter what the actual truth of the matter is; there can at least in theory be false "facts" (things that everybody agrees upon, but which are, in fact, false), and there are very often true "opinions," though necessarily, it seems, more false ones than true.
we might want to state opinions, we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing the opinion to someone. So, rather than asserting, "God exists," which is an opinion, we can say, "Most Americans believe that God exists," which is a fact, or "Thomas Aquinas believed that God exists," which is also a fact. In the first instance we assert an opinion; in the second and third instances we convert that opinion into a fact by attributing it to someone. However, both of those facts are colored by what evidence supports those facts and the semantics behind both statements: the first is a statement gleaned from polls and is thus subject to the facts behind poll-taking; the second is gleaned from the writings of Aquinas, which are very different from polls. And the conception of God in the modern era is very different from that of the age of Aquinas. Fortunately, Wikipedia can have entries on God, Thomas Aquinas, polls, etc., to elucidate these points.
say that we should state facts and not opinions. When asserting a fact about an opinion, it is important also to assert facts about competing opinions, and to do so without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It's also generally important to give the facts about the reasons behind the views, and to make it clear who holds them. (It's often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.) Here is a cut and paste of the version that Elen of the Roads noted above that is PERFECTLY CLEAR. QuackGuru ( talk) 23:59, 22 April 2010 (UTC) |
@Crum375. Agree entirely. You can sum the whole thing up in a couple of sentences - don't say anything you can't verify with reliable sources, and if sources disagree, make this clear in the way you present the information, using in-text attribution or direct quotes. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 00:25, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Zaereth, verifiability on WP simply means that a reliable source has published it. I don't know what you mean by "factuality." The two are unlikely to be related except in the empty sense that it's a fact that A published X. SlimVirgin talk contribs 04:03, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
About this whole thread: there is no assert facts policy! The policy is "NPOV." Larry Sanger first imported from Nupedia an explanation of his idea of neutrality, and the policy page actually included the discussion (I do not think we had talk pages back then) about the policy. Believe it or not, the discussion was over whether the NPOV policy was "American-centric." Maybe this is because larry included some examples that refered to the US. The question was whether more explanation was needed to make NPOV intelligible to Brits, Aussies, etc who perhaps use English differently. It was during that time that another editor (Graham somebody) added the stuf on asserting facts explicitly as "another attempt to explain the policy" (and it was crystal clear that "explain the policy" meant "explain the NPOV policy")
This is the original NPOV policy:
Now, I to go back to the spirit of our 2001 discussions, I think adding anything that makes the above easier to understand by people who do not speak American English is a good idea but let us be clear that the above is our benchmark, the question is: do edits to the policy page help people better understand the above, or confuse people as to the above? Slrubenstein | Talk 11:53, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
The proposal to completely remove ASF seems to change (possibly even eliminate) the long-standing policies in the ASF section. If we're going to eliminate one of the purposes of WP:ASF, then I'd think it'd be worthy to have a broader discussion (probably a RFC) specifically on that topic first. So far no logical reason has been given to drastically change or even eliminate core ASF policy. QuackGuru ( talk) 00:27, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Could someone briefly summarize the discussion? This has always been an odd sentence, but attempts to fix it have met with resistance. "Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By 'fact' we mean 'a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute'."
Two problems with the above:
(a) A fact is simply a true proposition; something that is the case (leaving aside the complexities that philosophers get into). Whether it's in dispute or not is irrelevant.
(b) Most of what we do on Wikipedia is assert opinions about facts, not facts about opinions. I can see what the passage is trying to say (it is trying to say "cite your sources," because it is a fact that A says X, even if A and X are wrong), but it has it exactly upside down.
So it would be good to fix it at last, but I wouldn't want to do anything to weaken its spirit. SlimVirgin talk contribs 03:56, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
@SlimVirgin, if you read the 'earliest' version, you can see that what it was trying to say was exactly 'don't say Elvis is King, say Col. Parker says Elvis is king. You can also see that it was put in because the original policy was written by putting together the favourite versions of several people, which is why its a bit of a contradictory dogs breakfast today.
@ Stephen B Streater, too short, too short. "State information which is uncontroversial within the subject" would remove half the information from wikipedia. Also, NPOV is a bit more than 'give appropriate balance.' It requires an editor not to add information in a way that is heavily slanted to one viewpoint, and also to work with others to create a balanced view. Elen of the Roads ( talk) 07:44, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
What we want to achieve is clear policies which people read, understand and implement. Kotniski is right about core policies and essays. Important core policies on what to write should be in a single accessible place, and be brief and concise. All the archetypal debates and long detailed descriptions (which I can guarantee most editors never read) should be put in essays. Wikipedia:Avoid instruction creep is worth a read. Stephen B Streater ( talk) 08:04, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
I've added something, [5] partly based on Elen's suggestion:
Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question.
Where there is disagreement about a view, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that ..."— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch.
Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion.
Thoughts? SlimVirgin talk contribs 08:46, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes" cos he didn't – he presented an argument that apes and humans have common descent from a shared ancestor. Have restored It would give a false impression of parity to state that "according to Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust was a program of extermination of the Jewish people in Germany, but David Irving disputes this analysis", assigning both the supermajority view and a tiny minority view to a single activist in the field. Doubtless other useful and possibly essential nuances have gone missing in these changes, but that struck me immediately. . . dave souza, talk 09:26, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
While I'm tightening, I continued and merged the first few subsections, which were very repetitive. So instead of three very long subsections, it now reads:
The neutral point of view is a way of dealing with conflicting perspectives. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views as found in reliable sources be presented in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV".
The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as found in reliable sources. Articles should describe different points of view without endorsing any of them. It may describe the criticism of particular viewpoints found in reliable sources, but it should not take sides.
Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question. Where there is disagreement about a view, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that"— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch.
Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion.
SlimVirgin talk contribs 09:28, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Old | New |
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==Explanation of the neutral point of view==
The neutral point of view is a means of dealing with conflicting perspectives on a topic as evidenced by reliable sources. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views be presented fairly, in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Therefore, material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV", although it may be shortened, moved to a new article, or even removed entirely on the grounds that it gives undue weight to a minor point of view, as explained below. The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject, nor does it endorse or oppose specific viewpoints. It is not a lack of viewpoint, but is rather a specific, editorially neutral, point of view. An article should clearly describe, represent, and characterize all the disputes within a topic, but should not endorse any particular point of view. It should explain who believes what, and why, and which points of view are most common. It may contain critical evaluations of particular viewpoints based on reliable sources, but even text explaining sourced criticisms of a particular view must avoid taking sides. ===Bias=== Neutrality requires that views be represented without bias. All editors and reliable sources have biases (in other words, all editors and all sources have a point of view)—what matters is how we combine the views of the sources to create a neutral article. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as published by those sources. ===Facts and opinions=== Assert facts, including facts about opinions—but do not assert the opinions themselves. By " fact" we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute." For example, that a survey produced a certain published result would be a fact. That there is a planet called Mars is a fact. That Plato was a philosopher is a fact. No one seriously disputes any of these things, so we assert as many of them as possible. A fact can be asserted without simon-says inline-text phrasing. An opinion can be attributed to so-and-so said. By value or opinion, [1] on the other hand, we mean "a matter which is subject to dispute." There are many propositions that very clearly express values or opinions. That stealing is wrong is a value or opinion. That The Beatles were the greatest band in history is an opinion. That the United States is the only country in the world that has used a nuclear weapon during wartime is a fact. That the United States was right or wrong to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a value or opinion. However, there are bound to be borderline cases (see Undue weight) where it is not clear if a particular dispute should be taken seriously and included. When we discuss an opinion, we attribute the opinion to someone and discuss the fact that they have this opinion. For instance, rather than asserting that "The Beatles were the greatest band ever", locate a source such as Rolling Stone magazine and say: "Rolling Stone said that the Beatles were the greatest band ever", and include a reference to the issue in which that statement was made. Likewise, the statement "Most people from Liverpool believe that the Beatles were the greatest band ever" can be made if it can be supported by references to a particular survey; a claim such as "The Beatles had many songs that made the UK Singles Chart" can also be made, because it is verifiable as fact. The first statement asserts a personal opinion; the second asserts the fact that an opinion exists and attributes it to reliable sources. In attributing competing views, it is necessary to ensure that the attribution adequately reflects the relative levels of support for those views, and that it does not give a false impression of parity. For example, to state that "according to Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust was a program of extermination of the Jewish people in Germany, but David Irving disputes this analysis" would be to give apparent parity between the supermajority view and a tiny minority view by assigning each to a single activist in the field. It is not sufficient to discuss an opinion as fact merely by stating "some people believe...", a practice referred to as "mass attribution". [2] A reliable source supporting a statement that a group holds an opinion must accurately describe how large this group is. Moreover, there are usually disagreements about how opinions should be properly stated. To fairly represent all the leading views in a dispute it is sometimes necessary to qualify the description of an opinion, or to present several formulations of this opinion and attribute them to specific groups. A careful selection of reliable sources is also critical for producing articles with a neutral point of view. When discussing the facts on which a point of view is based, it is important to also include the facts on which competing opinions are based since this helps a reader evaluate the credibility of the competing viewpoints. This should be done without implying that any one of the opinions is correct. It is also important to make it clear who holds these opinions. It is often best to cite a prominent representative of the view.
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==Explanation of the neutral point of view==
The neutral point of view is a way of dealing with conflicting perspectives. It requires that all majority- and significant-minority views as found in reliable sources be presented in a disinterested tone, and in rough proportion to their prevalence within the source material. Material should not be removed solely on the grounds that it is "POV". The neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject. Unbiased writing is the disinterested description of all significant sides of a debate as found in reliable sources. Articles should describe different points of view without endorsing any of them. It may describe the criticism of particular viewpoints found in reliable sources, but it should not take sides. Verifiability and No original research require that anything challenged or likely to be challenged, including all quotations, be attributed to a reliable source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question. Where a statement is controversial or subjective, use in-text attribution—"John Smith writes that"— rather than publishing the opinion in Wikipedia's voice. Avoid mass attribution such as "some people believe": see Words to watch. Articles should contain balanced coverage of all majority and significant-minority views, but make sure they roughly reflect the relative levels of support among reliable sources for the position in question. Do not write: "Charles Darwin argued that humankind evolved from apes, but Keith's mum thinks we came from another planet." Appropriate weight must be given to each view, so that it is clear what status the majority and significant-minority views have among reliable sources. If the topic has attracted fringe or tiny-minority views, consider writing about those views in articles devoted to them, so long as there are reliable secondary sources to support inclusion. |
SlimVirgin talk contribs 09:35, 23 April 2010 (UTC)