Talk:Fenella Fielding

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[edit] Fielding's year of birth

A lack of consensus on Fielding's year of birth, as well as a degree of uncertainty over its accuracy, is evidenced by selected revisions from the article's history (listed below from the most recent to the earliest).

Wikipedia revision summary

Year of birth	Revision
1927	11 July, 2007 (20:43)
circa 1930	17 June, 2007 (19:57)
1930	20 January, 2007 (13:32)
1934	20 January, 2007 (11:34)
circa 1930	6 March, 2006 (22:35)
c. 1930	3 January, 2006 (23:13)
1930	12 September, 2004 (06:05)
1934	22 April, 2004 (12:40)

To an extent, this reflects the disagreement between various other sources. However, where a web site has used Wikipedia as a source at one time or another, the inconsistencies have been compounded.

Other online examples

1927
The Internet Movie Database
Astrotheme source: Wikipedia
circa 1930
eBay source: Wikipedia
1930
Born On This Day
Fandango
1934
On This Day In History
British Musical Theatre
The Independent*
The Times*
*While mainstream newspapers may be considered reliable, many of the other online sources might not.

This particular date doesn't seem to be a source of real contention, so continuing to cycle randomly through the variations is clearly neither productive nor conducive to Wikipedia's credibility. Indeed, the Independent article even speculates that some of Fielding's "enemies… appear to have tampered with her Wikipedia entry".

I rather doubt that. All the revisions listed here appear to have been made in perfectly good faith. But in an effort to resolve the matter, I propose we stick to the date suggested by both The Independent and The Times. Notwithstanding the possibility of understatement by the subject, the former at least comes "straight from the horse's mouth", while the latter should help assuage any concerns over verifiability or privacy.

If any editor disagrees with this rationale, and believes the year of birth should be changed further, perhaps they could discuss their reason(s) and source(s) here first. Thanks. --Error -128 (talk) 00:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

In spite of the above request for discussion, Fielding's date of birth was changed twice recently, on the same day (20 March 2008).

The first edit, by 90.198.226.104 (talk), claims that Fielding's year of birth was 1928 and cites "Birth records for Jan/Feb/March 1928, in the official archives". This would mean, however, that the records predated the event.

Subsequent edits were made by 90.198.226.174 (talk). Initially, the births category was altered to 1928. Further changes were then made to the year of birth (1927) and the births category (1927).

Since the edits contradict each other, as well as the existing citation (which is verifiable), I'm reverting them. Those concerned are invited to join this discussion so that consensus may be reached before any further change is made. If anyone else would like to add their comments, please feel free to do so.

Thanks. --Error -128 (talk) 22:36, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

A reference added on 15 May 2008 cites the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which (as shown earlier) gives Fielding's year of birth as 1927 and contradicts the existing source.

Caution is advised when considering IMDb as a reliable source, or when citing IMDb and similar online sources; the general view is that anecdotes, trivia, and unreleased film information from IMDb do not meet the reliable sources guideline and that the IMDb should be used only as a tertiary source for "hard data" on released films.

The discussion above cites two news organisations, The Independent and The Times, as reliable, verifiable sources. Since this article is a biography of a living person, it's especially important that we get it right—so I'm reverting just that part of the edit (which was unquestionably made in good faith).

To help flag this discussion for editors in future, I'm also leaving an invisible comment in the article itself. If you think the information regarding Fielding's date of birth should differ in any way, please join in and gain consensus here before any further change is made.

Thanks. --Error -128 (talk) 22:45, 25 May 2008 (UTC)