Uzma Gamal (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Newyorkbrad (talk | contribs) restore "corrollary" since it appears that is actually part of "Collect's Law" |
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::*''"The person who is most insistent on specific sources is least likely to have found the best sources."'' |
::*''"The person who is most insistent on specific sources is least likely to have found the best sources."'' |
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::*''"The person who posts the greatest amount of "No consensus for that" is least likely to reflect real consensus."'' |
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::*''"The person who most frequently speaks about assuming good faith is least likely to assume good faith."'' |
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::*''"The person who ends posts with "Cheers" is usually cheerless."'' |
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::*''"The person who cites Collect's Laws is grasping at straws."'' |
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This is substantially related to [[Proof by assertion]] where an argument or proposition is repeated until challenges to it "dry up", creating a [[logical fallacy]]. Another term is [[Perseveration]], that is, an act of perseverance by repeating the same thing again and again. This is also called a ''Bellman's proof, ''after Lewis Carroll's usage.[http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~fleck/proof.html]. In each case, the act of repetition has nothing to do with the real strength of an argument. |
This is substantially related to [[Proof by assertion]] where an argument or proposition is repeated until challenges to it "dry up", creating a [[logical fallacy]]. Another term is [[Perseveration]], that is, an act of perseverance by repeating the same thing again and again. This is also called a ''Bellman's proof, ''after Lewis Carroll's usage.[http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~fleck/proof.html]. In each case, the act of repetition has nothing to do with the real strength of an argument. |
Revision as of 18:57, 8 November 2012
- "The person who posts the greatest amount of repeated verbiage to a discussion, is least likely to be correct." [1]
- "The person who is most insistent on specific sources is least likely to have found the best sources."
This is substantially related to Proof by assertion where an argument or proposition is repeated until challenges to it "dry up", creating a logical fallacy. Another term is Perseveration, that is, an act of perseverance by repeating the same thing again and again. This is also called a Bellman's proof, after Lewis Carroll's usage.[2]. In each case, the act of repetition has nothing to do with the real strength of an argument.
On Wikipedia, one may find single editors who so dominate an article or article talk page as to render this a valid concept. The posting of up to a quarter or more of the total posts on a well-discussed topic, and comprising more than a third of the total verbiage on a topic, may indicate a problem with perseveration.
Wikipedia also has a long-estalished essay on the Internet abbreviation "TL;DR" at WP:Too long; didn't read about the phenomenon of a person making a single post with too much stuff in it. This is not the same as "proof by repetition" but has the same related problem - other editors do not have the patience to deal with it, and a sufficiently loquacious editor may feel their points were not contraverted simply because other editors do not wish to deal with such iterated verbiage.
In each case, the advice remains - trying to "prove by repetition" is invalid, and drowning talk pages in repeated words is not a valid means of obtaining consensus.
Hint: Provide a link to this essay when you run out of reasonable arguments, and/or as a strategy to denigrate someone else's when they run to more than a couple of lines and thereby outstrip your limited comprehension skills.
See also: WP:CONSENSUS