Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/27 February 2012/Wikipedia:Verifiability/Group 1

This page is to be used by work group one in the Wikipedia:Verifiability MedCab case. It will be used to create the "status quo" draft for presentation in a community-wide RfC. This draft will include both "threshold" and "verifiability, not truth", and should be as representative as possible of the status quo that has existed on WP:V. There have been different "status quo" versions at different times, so determining the right mixture of these will be the primary task for the drafters here.

Editors should:
 * Add their proposed wording to a new section.
 * Not sign their section with the standard four tildes.
 * Not comment on other sections. This will be done at the discussion page.
 * Not change the wording of drafts. They should add a new draft with the changed wording.

Draft 0
{| style="background:#d9d9d9"
 * The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.
 * The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.

To show that it is not original research, all material added to articles must be attributable to a reliable, published source appropriate for the content in question. In practice you do not need to attribute everything. This policy requires that all quotations and anything challenged or likely to be challenged be attributed in the form of an inline citation that directly supports the material. For how to write citations, see WP:Citing sources.

This policy applies to all material in the mainspace—articles, lists, sections of articles, and captions—without exception, and in particular to material about living persons. Anything that requires but lacks a source may be removed, and unsourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately.

Verifiability is one of Wikipedia's core content policies, along with No original research and Neutral point of view. These policies jointly determine the type and quality of material that is acceptable in articles. They should not be interpreted in isolation from one another, and editors should familiarize themselves with the key points of all three. Articles must also comply with the copyright policy.

Draft 1
{| style="background:#AADDFF" The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth; that is, whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.

To show that it is not original research, all material in Wikipedia articles must be attributable to a reliable published source. But in practice not everything need actually be attributed. This policy requires that all quotations and any material challenged or likely to be challenged be attributed to a reliable, published source in the form of an inline citation, and that the source directly support the material in question.

This policy is strictly applied to all material in the mainspace—articles, lists, sections of articles, and captions—without exception, and in particular to material about living persons. Anything that requires but lacks a source may be removed, and unsourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. For how to write citations, see Citing sources.

Verifiability is one of Wikipedia's core content policies, along with No original research and Neutral point of view. These policies jointly determine the type and quality of material that is acceptable in articles. They should not be interpreted in isolation from one another, and editors should familiarize themselves with all three.

Draft 2
{| style="background:#FFFF33"
 * Verifiability on Wikipedia is the reader's ability to check cited sources that directly support the information in an article. All information in Wikipedia must be verifiable, but because other policies and guidelines also influence content, verifiability does not guarantee inclusion. Verifiability, and not truth, is one of the fundamental requirements for inclusion in Wikipedia; truth, of itself, is not a substitute for meeting the verifiability requirement. No matter how convinced you are that something is true, do not add it to an article unless it is verifiable.
 * Verifiability on Wikipedia is the reader's ability to check cited sources that directly support the information in an article. All information in Wikipedia must be verifiable, but because other policies and guidelines also influence content, verifiability does not guarantee inclusion. Verifiability, and not truth, is one of the fundamental requirements for inclusion in Wikipedia; truth, of itself, is not a substitute for meeting the verifiability requirement. No matter how convinced you are that something is true, do not add it to an article unless it is verifiable.

It must be possible to attribute all information in Wikipedia to reliable, published sources that are appropriate for the content in question. However, in practice it is only necessary to provide inline citations for quotations and for any information that has been challenged or that is likely to be challenged. Appropriate citations guarantee that the information is not original research, and allow readers and editors to check the source material for themselves. Any material that requires a citation but does not have one may be removed. Unsourced contentious material about living people must be removed immediately. For help on adding citations, see Citing sources. This policy applies to all material in the mainspace.

Verifiability, No original research and Neutral point of view are Wikipedia's core content policies. They work together to determine content, so editors should understand the key points of all three. Articles must also comply with the copyright policy.

Draft 3
Verifiability, but not truth, is the threshold point for determining if content can be included in Wikipedia. For the editor this means that:
 * The threshold describes that point at which content can be located by the editor in a WP:RS, and so is verified by a RS.
 * Once content can be verified by the editor, and if that content is directly supported by the RS, the content can, potentially, be included in a Wikipedia article.
 * Wikipedia's other policies and guidelines further help determine if content is Wikipedia compliant.

For the reader:
 * The reader must be able to trace content to its source.

Common misconceptions about Verifiability:
 * Verifiability does not create truth or accuracy in the encyclopedia. Verifiability is the name of the process by which we establish if content is accurate per a source.
 * In "Verifiability, not truth", "not truth" means that what an editor believes to be true or accurate in no way contributes to the verifiability of the content or is reason to include content in an article.
 * Not all content in an article must actually cite its sources, but all content must be initially verified, that is, must be sourced even if that source is not actually cited in an article.

Note: This started off as the status quo version but I reversed the VnotT sentence which seemed to make more sense syntactically, and I tried out another format to see if it was easier to read and understand. If this version should be moved to another draft page just let me know.

Draft 6.5
{|style="background:#99FFCC"
 * Verifiability on Wikipedia is the reader's ability to check cited sources that directly support the information in an article. All information in Wikipedia must be verifiable, but because other policies and guidelines also influence content, verifiability does not guarantee inclusion. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.
 * Verifiability on Wikipedia is the reader's ability to check cited sources that directly support the information in an article. All information in Wikipedia must be verifiable, but because other policies and guidelines also influence content, verifiability does not guarantee inclusion. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.

It must be possible to attribute all information in Wikipedia to reliable, published sources that are appropriate for the content in question. However, in practice it is only necessary to provide inline citations for quotations and for any information that has been challenged or that is likely to be challenged. Appropriate citations guarantee that the information is not original research, and allow readers and editors to check the source material for themselves. Any material that requires a citation but does not have one may be removed. Unsourced contentious material about living people must be removed immediately. For help on adding citations, see Citing sources. This policy applies to all material in the mainspace.

Verifiability, No original research and Neutral point of view are Wikipedia's core content policies. They work together to determine content, so editors should understand the key points of all three. Articles must also comply with the copyright policy.

Draft 9
{| style="background:#ccb695"

Draft 10
{| style="background:#00FFCC"

Draft 11
{| style="background:#33FF00"

Draft 12
{| style="background:#ffeb99"

Draft 13
{| style="background:#adc9ff"

Draft 14
{| style="background:#a1e3a1"

Draft 15
{| style="background:#ffc7ff"