Re: Please help with wikipedia's article on Arabic Numerals that's falling victim to vandalism


casiocult...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> [...]
> At this moment there two versions of the page that are being reverted
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabic_numerals&oldid=30788115
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arabic_numerals&oldid=30788028
>
> One of them is, in all fairness, citing verifiable and reliable sources
> (ie, scientific and academic, by professors and doctors on the topic of
> mathematics and history of science) and doing so on a point-by-point
> basis, with almost a citation for every significant piece of
> information provided that is linked to and can be checked by the
> reader. The page also links at the end of the article as its first
> external reference to a paper titled "The Development of Hindu-Arabic
> and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic" by Professor Lam Lay Yon, member of
> the International Academy of the History of Science". This page still
> needs some work to fill in the gaps, but as it's careful to be accurate
> and verifiable it takes time, as well as the unpleasant fact that its
> editors have to face an onslaught of a disruptive activism against
> their efforts.
>
> The other version of the page is, in all fairness, lacking in citations
> on a point-by-point basis, its first external reference linked to is a
> personal weblog with the title of "Laputan Logic: Fanciful.
> Preposterous. Absurd." that lists no author in its about section, has
> quite a manifest and obvious bias that can be estimated to be Hindu
> Nationalist or Hindu revisionist, contains many factual errors,
> examples of which are discussed here and elsewhere on the talk page.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Arabic_numerals#Vertaloni.2C_examples_of_errors_in_your_version

This is one of the problems with creating an encyclopedia that anyone
and his brother can add information to. And this is also why I try to
direct people away from Wikipedia and towards more neutral and
established site (such as MathWorld).

"The ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity,
intelligence, or common sense." --- Spaf's Axiom of Usenet #2

--- Christopher Heckman

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