Witipedia:Verifiability: Difference between revisions

'''Funny is not a source.'''

On Witipedia, material that is challenged or likely to be challenged must be supported by a source a reader can go and check. The threshold is not "I read it somewhere", "everyone knows this" or "it's obviously true".

== Where this bites hardest ==

The funny claim is the one that travels. A reader who remembers one sentence from your article will remember the joke, repeat it at dinner, and be wrong in public on your behalf. So the funny claim carries the ''highest'' sourcing burden here, not the lowest.

A useful test before saving: if this line were quoted back to you by a stranger who had also read the source, would you be comfortable?

== Sources ==

Prefer, in order: peer-reviewed literature; official records, statutes and transcripts; reputable books and long-form journalism; specialist reference works. Avoid: aggregator sites, listicles, "fun facts" pages, and anything that cites another encyclopedia. Never cite a thing you have not opened.

== Things that are true and still do not belong ==

* Trivia with no bearing on the subject

* Claims true of one instance, written as though general

* Numbers stripped of their units, ranges or error bars because the rounded version is funnier

That last one is the most common way a good editor goes wrong here.

== When you are caught out ==

Fix it, note it in the edit summary, and move on. Nobody is embarrassed by a corrected article; the alternative is an encyclopedia that cannot be trusted, which is just a comedy site with more footnotes.

== See also ==

* [[Witipedia:Be funny]]

* [[Witipedia:Citing sources]]

[[Category:Witipedia]]