Forum:A Page out of the MLA Handbook

This forum is something that I believe should believe be considered by the higher ups on this wiki. It involves the MLA handbook. Aeron Solo wuz here (If you wanna talk)  17:34, May 11, 2011 (UTC)

Unofficial source problems
Recently, A-Stone's mistake involving voice actors have kind of reminded me something about the MLA Handbook that I think could be applied so that this doesn't happen. The most recent addition involved checking the credentials of the cite so that one can confirm that it's a valid source. There have been plenty of instances where people with honest intentions have made mistakes because they found info from invalid sources. To avoid this, maybe it should be a policy that to even consider a source valid, one has to look at the credentials of the source and confirm that it is not just some random fansite and really a direct source. I know that it might be redundant, but in the long run it could be beneficial. Thoughts? Aeron Solo wuz here (If you wanna talk)  17:34, May 11, 2011 (UTC)

I suppose something like this could be added to the Manual of Style. Always good to have the rules marked down somewhere. The problem though is getting people to follow it. I highly doubt A-Stone will stop bringing up what he believes are correct changes to VAs just because we now say he needs an official source. He believes that ANN is an official source. --

Yeah, that's always true. But it would be a good fallback rule. I'm looking at Anime News Network, and I think what A-Stone doesn't realize is that the site is often a hobby for most people; that's what it used to be for its head guy. It's almost entirely voluntary, and the people are all over the country and come from various backgrounds. No one is paid to do anything, and there is pretty much no penalty for getting wrong info. Basically, there's no pressure to be completely right. Then again, here it's volunteer too, but you guys pretty much treat it as your job. Not that it's a bad thing; I mean, without you guys chaos would be running rampant. Aeron Solo wuz here (If you wanna talk)  18:51, May 11, 2011 (UTC)

You should know that ANN nearly has the same rules as you have. A-Stone (talk) 18:56, May 11, 2011 (UTC)A-Stone

They most likely do. But the thing is, there's no pressure to get things right. Just like there isn't here. So basically, neither website, because they are, essentially, fansites (stretching the definition a lot here) you can't cite each site as a valid source. Both sites seem to do their best to be accurate to the best of their knowledge, but they're not direct sources. We're all secondary sources that pick up info from other secondary sources AND primary sources alike. And sometimes the secondary sources are incorrect. We get things wrong here too. Aeron Solo wuz here (If you wanna talk)  19:01, May 11, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing that up. A-Stone (talk) 19:07, May 11, 2011 (UTC)A-Stone

No problem. Aeron Solo wuz here (If you wanna talk)  19:13, May 11, 2011 (UTC)