Wikipedia:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue
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This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion. |
Wikipedia:Verifiability is an important and core policy of Wikipedia. Making sure that Wikipedia's content is accurate and is backed up by reliable sources helps improve the status of the encyclopedia. There are several tags used to indicate cleanup and other requirements and this essay won't go into them.
What is completely pointless, however, is strewing {{fact}} or {{cn}} tags throughout articles without good reason. Currently there are 150,665 articles with at least one of those tags on board, and many are next to statements that are either obvious, uncontroversial or easily verified.
Putting {{fact}} next to a statement that can be casually verified by playing a game, visiting a location, or asking someone with a reasonable knowledge isn't the intention of the tag and clogs up pages and the category. It's fair to put it next to a statement that might be controversial or is negative about a person or organization, but you don't need to cite that the sky is blue.
This means applying some common sense when you place the {{fact}} tags. Alternatively, if you add one, then browse the pages and find a citation or remove a statement that you can't find one for.
This applies similarly to accusations of original research.
Try to stop clogging up the categories for cleanup!
