User:As the Crow Flies/TWA/Teahouse





Truth and Wikipedia
Hi, I'm new here and trying to learn more about Wikipedia. I was wondering, how do you know that anything on Wikipedia is *true*?

--GalacticTrekker (talk)
 * Hey GalacticTrekker, and welcome to Teahouse :-)


 * I'm so glad you asked that question. It's a deep and important one to ask. The simple answer to your question, is that we know that information on Wikipedia is "true" because the information is backed up by a reliable source! If NPOV is the foundation of Wikipedia, good published sources are the pillars.


 * We look for sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy... sources like books, newspaper articles, magazines, academic journals, and expert websites. These are typically much better than self-published books, blogs, self-made websites, and other personal writing or original research.


 * Even though Wikipedia is a volunteer-written project, put together by mostly non-experts, it's *still* based on high-quality sources.


 * This is part of our core policy called Verifiability. In practice, not every single sentence has a source, but the key is that it could be sourced. I'm so glad you asked! Feel free to come back any time for help. Cheers, --TheHelpFullWand (talk)