User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Shortcuts/Longevity is no substitute for research
Longevity is no substitute for research[edit]
Sometimes, contributors argue that something must be true since it has remained on the wiki (in one or more articles) for a long period of time. However, there are lots of reasons that inaccuracies persist:
- Fandom: a few are passionate about a topic and no one confirms their research.
- Unexpected impact: Something changed (usually undocumented) and no one caught the secondary or tertiary impact on other articles.
- Rumor → Fact creep: A plausible theory on a talk page was boldly posted as a speculative note, which later was converted to a serious note.
- Larger bladder: Sometimes, the last edit belongs to the only person who didn't get tired of arguing (or need to attend to other RL issues).
- Trust without verification:
- A plausible idea is boldly posted. Others assumed good faith, but forgot to check the facts.
- A trusted contributor makes a mistake, and people forget to check the facts.
Examples[edit]
These are a sampling of notable errors that persisted on the wiki for long periods of time, despite multiple page-views and edits. The recharge time (column 1) indicates the length of time the mistake persisted while the activation (column 2) is the year that the discrepancy was introduced. The spotter† is the first person to point out the mistake (and usually the person who made the appropriate initial update).
 |
 |
Article | Issue | Spotter† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 years | 2007 | Rohmen | NPC's skill list was wrong since the day his page was created. | Leviticus Lo (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 2 years | 2009 | Salv upgrade list | Inaccurate data based (it appears) on Prima guide. | 88.153.105.75 (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 3 years | 2008 | Bladed Aatxe Smite Crawler Wailing Lord |
Unsubstantiated drop rates for ecto; these numbers are now quoted throughout the GW-player base as accurate, even those there is little evidence to support the specific (although plausible) rates. | TEF (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 1 year | 2010 | QCT / HCT | It took a year (after casting time buffs were capped at 50%) before someone challenged the claim that QCT was still possible. Fix. | Judas (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 3 years | 2008 | Hero's Handbook | Data in title maxing table was wrong since its introduction. Fix. | 184.231.41.196 (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 4 years | 2007 | Ascalon Army | Included Lieutenant Fisk and Coporal Timlin, although they have never been seen in the game and do not have articles on the wiki. Removed June 2011. | Magamdy (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 3 years | 2008 | Smite Condition | Article was updated in 2007 to in-game text. In 2008, someone noticed that the affected area was smaller. It took another 3+ years before the article was changed to reflect this. | Seef II (talk • contribs • logs) Tyloric (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 3.5 | 2006 | Spirit of Portals | On 29 May 2006, Guild Wiki listed 300 dmg, changed to 200 damage on 21 Sep 2006, restored again on 4 Feb 2008, and fixed on 17 Sep 2011. | Silver Edge (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 4 years | 2007 | Mourning Veil Falls | Dredge were named as one of the foe types present. People first raised the issue in 2006 on Guild Wiki. Fixed on December 21, 2011. | Lord Flynt (talk • contribs • logs) |
| 2 years | 2010 | War Supplies | War Supplies have a sweet value that was missed by...well, everyone. (It's vaguely possible they were introduced without one and the sweet points were added later, but there's no way to test that hypothesis.) Fixed on April 8, 2012 | Pandora Mac (talk • contribs • logs) |
Short list is good, no?[edit]
Alas, no. There are two reasons that this section is anemic:
- This wiki has done very well in removing/fixing fallacies.
- It's hard work spotting just how long an error has been in place. (The only way to document the duration of notable mistakes is through meticulous review of article histories. That is an unreasonable amount of effort on top of making sure the current edit is accurate and well-written.)
In other words, just because something's been on the wiki a long time doesn't make it true. It might have been true once, it might never have been accurate, or it might have gradually morphed into misleading phraseology.
Add to the list?[edit]
If you spot an inaccuracy on this page or have an example you'd like to see included, please add a note to the talk page.
