User:TheVerificator

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This is a role account of User:Jguk.

The role being performed is to check whether new information uploaded to Wikipedia - either in the way of new edits to articles, or in the way of creation of new articles - is verified by a source or reference. See Wikipedia:Verifiability.

Edits made without sources or references will be reverted with the request that they will only be re-added to the encyclopaedia if accompanied by a source or reference.

At present, this account is being used experimentally - only analysing the occasional 5 minutes of additions. The intention is to see whether it is practical to move to a policy of automatically reverting all unsourced and unreferenced additions. So far it as only analysed edits made between 9.10am and 9.14am inclusive on 17 December 2005.

The edit summaries made by this account will usually contain the text: Rv info added without source or reference. Please only re-add this information if you can quote a source. See WP:Verifiability.

Note that I am not attempting to check or monitor the reliability of sources, nor whether information that has already been added to an article is sourced.

Problems:

  • What about amendments to information (ie replacing one name with another?)
  • How do you know whether an source or reference that has already been quoted is the source or reference for the new information?
  • What about substantial rewrites that also add a small amount of new information?