This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
An editor thinks something might be wrong with this page. They can't be bothered to fix it, but can rest assured that they've done their encyclopedic duty by sticking on a tag. Please allow this tag to languish indefinitely at the top of the page, since nobody knows exactly what the tagging editor was worked up about. (February 2014) |
This sentence[citation needed] is almost impossible[citation needed] to read[citation needed] because it has been littered[citation needed] with citation request tags.[citation needed] This makes it extremely[citation needed] difficult[citation needed] for the reader to obtain[citation needed] any useful information.[citation needed]
I was just looking at an article that was absolutely littered with {{cn}} tags. (Relevant diff.)
We have the tag for a good reason. People like to know that what they're reading has some actual grounds in reality and a good chance of being, you know, factually correct. (It isn't always, but we aim to get close) So if you think something is probably true, ask the person who added the tag to cite it. So far, so good.
Spin forward, oooh, four, five, six, years - and the tag is still there, with all the charm and beauty of a derelict housing estate.
Just say no. If an article is so badly unreferenced that asking for citation requests needs to be done on every single sentence, put a tag at the top. Or, even better, cite some of it yourself. You know those book tokens your grandma got you last Christmas? Go out and buy some good factual stuff and reference it.