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Interstate 73
Some years ago, you wanted to replace sources whose reliability was questionable so you could someday make this a good article. I objected since you wanted to remove any information that didn't have what Wikipedia considers a reliable source. I went to the North Carolina Department of Transportation but never succeeded in getting the needed information, and I can't access a lot of the other sources used by the man who you didn't regard as reliable.
It's okay, though. It has occurred to me that were you or anyone to remove the information, the article would never be comprehensive enough to reach good article status. Or at least I would object.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:32, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
- @Vchimpanzee: I don't know what your point is, but I'll try to clarify a few things.
- We have to be able cite our work here. That's a core policy, embodied in WP:V, and in several cases, we have to more than be able to find a source for information in an article, we actually have to provide those sources.
- The sources we use have to be reliable, at least in the sense of how we use the term at WP:RS. That means, except in a few narrow cases, we cannot use sources that are self-published.
- Content that needs to be sourced (direct quotations, statistics, controversial or counterintuitive statements, etc) that is not cited to a reliable source can, and should be removed at any time. If a source is found later, it could always be restored, but it shouldn't remain in an article without references.
- These aren't just my opinions, they're requirements the community has determined and codified in policies and guidelines. Your objections wouldn't change those basic facts. We're a bit more lax than we should be until an article is nominated for Good Article status. Honestly, we should be starting our initial work on an article topic with the goal of GA in mind. It's a lot easier to polish an article with a good foundation than to totally rewrite something to fix core flaws like improper sourcing. Imzadi 1979 → 22:23, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
- I get that, but the sources looked good to me at the time. All I'm saying is if you want a comprehensive article, you or someone will have to find the sources. I could try the NC DOT again, but I'm not optimistic.
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- So the article will fail GA either on sources or comprehensiveness. Unless someone else has better luck than I did.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:51, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
- @Vchimpanzee: that author of that web page got his information somewhere. Have you tried reaching out to him on the sources he used? If so, you might be able to indirectly use his work to cite the content in our article by using it as a springboard to get to other sources you can directly cite. In the process, you might find nuggets of information he didn't include that we can use.
- Now, I will admit that I've had a great track record at being able to research and write highway articles, but what people don't always see is the efforts and monetary expenses in real life I've expended to get there. I've made several trips to the Library of Michigan to find sources. I was lucky to have them scan several decades' worth of old highway maps, but I've also mined some of their other resources. I drove to the WisDOT Library in Madison just to research the history sections of the US 8 and US 141 articles. In short, there's a lot of trips to many different libraries, not just e-mail inquiries and online searches. You just might have to do some of the same regarding your chosen topics if you want to bring articles up to higher assessment levels. Imzadi 1979 → 22:07, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
- I've gone to a number of libraries, but I don't make as much effort as you. And I don't have the same desire for good article status. I';ve always hoped others would make the additional effort after I got things started.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:25, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
- So the article will fail GA either on sources or comprehensiveness. Unless someone else has better luck than I did.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:51, 7 April 2016 (UTC)