User:Elaragirl/EssayVerify

My hero, UncleG, wrote:

"I've held for a while now that the proper study of encyclopaedists is the finding, citing, reading, and evaluating of sources."

In a nutshell, that's what verify means. It's the ultimate cure to the problem that eats at Wikipedia. Clutter.

The problem
Anyone can edit. That's a good thing. It allows the free flow of information. It allows anyone to pick up the slack. It's something we should strive to keep and make work. Not work around.

But when anyone can edit, it also means anyone can add things that don't belong. And so we have CSD and AfD and the ridiculous amounts of combative, argument intensive discussions, where everyone slings around the tags. WP:V. WP:RS. And so on.

But what Uncle G says is, in large part, true. I've been shadow wikistalking him now for almost 3 days, not editing, just looking at the edits he does.

Finding, citing, reading, and evaluating sources.

That, my friends, is the problem.

Just because anyone can edit does not mean anyone can edit well.

Currently, verifying things is a pain. What is a good source? What is a reliable source? What is 'verifiable' varies between people.