Wikipedia talk:Deprecated sources

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Why are right wing sources more predominately depricated/restricted?

Title says it all. Just for fun I compiled a list of 55 sources of American media which have bias ratings from AllSides. 36 of the sources are left wing. Of these, only one is rated as unreliable (Alternet). 19 of the sources are rated as right wing. Only one of these is considered reliable (ReasonTV)! Seven are rated as unreliable, and six more are completely depricated. Just curious how you justify this? 209.171.85.237 (talk) 15:45, 25 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The bias is not a reason for deprecation (see WP:BIASED). A source may be biased but if it's reliable we can use it balancing it with other sources having different biases. If there are specific "left wing" sources that have published falsehoods, I suggest you check the archives of WP:RSN and raise this issue there. Alaexis_¿question? 21:06, 25 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You missed Occupy Democrats (RSP entry), which is a deprecated American left-wing source. AllSides has yet to rate other American far-left sources that have been deprecated, including The Grayzone (RSP entry) and MintPress News (RSP entry).

Also, AllSides only rates bias on the left–right political spectrum and does not rate reliability. If you check a media rater that also classifies media outlets for reliability, such as Ad Fontes Media, you'll find that Wikipedia editors and media raters tend to identify the same sources as unreliable. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-11-29/Op-Ed for details.

Finally, keep in mind that AllSides's media bias ratings are from the perspective of American politics. The Wikipedia community is international and has a much broader range of political perspectives that frequently differs from American political discourse. — Newslinger talk 02:20, 27 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Closed RfC deprecating Tasnim

This closed RfC on Tasnim News Agency should probably be added here by an uninvolved editor. Thanks. - Amigao (talk) 17:32, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Deprecated Sources - Actual Wikipedia vs Current Description

Actual wikipedia seems so very different to what is written in this article. In reality, a deprecated source has a de-facto ban, completely unlike what is currently described.

"Acceptable uses of deprecated sources Deprecation is not a blanket retroactive "ban" on using the source in absolutely every situation, contrary to what has been reported in media headlines. In particular, reliability always depends on the specific content being cited, and all sources are reliable in at least some circumstances and unreliable in at least some others. Citations to deprecated sources should not be removed indiscriminately, and each case should be reviewed separately. While some deprecated sources have been completely eliminated as references, others have not."

In reality, using a deprecated source means facing a challenge when posting, then being flagged by a bot, then having editors reject the source. There is no corresponding check whether the use is as a primary source, an opinion, or whether the criteria of factual sourcing apply. There seems no way to have an 'acceptable use' be accepted.

My experience is wiki/User_talk:Amigao#Wall_Street_Journal,_reference_from_Global_Times 14.201.39.78 (talk) 03:51, 11 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. This seems to be a rather straightforward case in which there can be no reliability issues. I cannot comment whether the content is due in that article. Alaexis_¿question? 19:41, 11 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Having read other topics on this page, I just wanted to highlight that my point is that it is confusing for new users to have the documentation so very different from the practice. Also, if the aim is for the documentation to be followed then there needs to be some balance against the zealous deletions based on source and not reliability. I appreciate comments on my own edit, but prefer they be added to the discussion here. 14.201.39.78 (talk) 10:08, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is no such thing as a "depreciated" source

More heat than light

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

The word is "deprecated", not "depreciated". Please get it right and fix any misspellings. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 16:02, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Lets be civil and assume good faith, I know for my own part the autocorrect that came standard on my system would change deprecated to depreciated (deprecated would be underlined in red too, was not in the short dictionary) because almost nobody in the world uses the word deprecated anymore. I would almost hazard a guess that its use as a wikipedia term of art is its most significant current use. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 16:35, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think depreciated is more often associated with loss of value whereas deprecated is as in less important (or out of date, coding). I still use deprecated in the sense of disapproval. Selfstudier (talk) 16:43, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

??? Horse Eye's Back, I am being civil. I wasn't replying to anyone. I was just providing general information to help editors. That's all. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 17:05, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thats not general information and it doesn't seem designed to help anyone, it appears to be a passive aggressive complaint at best. It is not civil to use talk pages to complain about what you see as the general shortcomings of your fellow editors. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 15:35, 7 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 17:15, 7 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry you feel that way. PackMecEng (talk) 22:04, 8 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I certainly didn't intend to offend anyone and was surprised that anyone would take offense. Color me so clueless I could not have predicted this reaction. Since this thread is now generating more heat than light, I'll hat it. There is nothing constructive happening here. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 00:48, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No worries, I'm here to help. PackMecEng (talk) 15:10, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Addition of Wen Wei Po

Should the outcome of this RfC, Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_306#RfC:_Wen_Wei_Po, be reflected on WP:DEPSOURCES? - Amigao (talk) 22:19, 1 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There may be issues with considering it formally deprecated, since the RfC was never formally closed. You could explain the issue at WP:CR and request a closure, and perhaps someone would be willing to close it despite the time elapsed. If not, a new discussion might be necessary.

That said, the source can certainly be considered to be generally unreliable at minimum, as long as there isn't any reason to think that the situation may have changed. Since that's generally enough to remove the source from articles, that may be sufficient for your purposes. There would only be an issue if e.g. you think the source should also be edit-filtered. Sunrise (talk) 21:07, 8 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Sunrise. A CR has been tried. Not sure what the course of action should be now. Amigao (talk) 21:32, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Then I would say to either start a new RfC (if you think it's important to deprecate), or proceed with the understanding that the source is generally unreliable. Both approaches can be justified given the circumstances.

If you start an RfC, I would recommend explaining the full sequence of events, particularly the denied closure request. If you decide to remove sources based on general unreliability, the RfC would still be a fallback option if there are any objections (there shouldn't be, except perhaps for specific uses being argued to be exceptions). In that case, it might be a reasonable precaution to only do a few at a time, and resolve any issues each time before continuing. Sunrise (talk) 16:22, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Column headings in "Currently deprecated sources" table

I haven’t looked at this page before so have missed out on how it developed. As a new visitor, I can’t work out the meaning of the "Last" column. I initially thought it meant the year when the deprecation was last discussed, but the dates don’t always match the latest dates in the "List" column. I assume the "Uses" column links to searches for the deprecated publication’s uses on Wikipedia. I’m probably just being thick, but thought I’d better mention that at least one reader is unsure what all the columns mean. --Northernhenge (talk) 11:30, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The "Last" column represents the year of the most recent discussion in the "List" column, regardless of whether that discussion mentions the deprecation of the source. In the table header, "List", "Last", and "Summary" are all under "Discussions", which indicates that the columns refer to "List of discussions", "Last discussion", and "Summary of discussions". If you have a suggestion that would make the table headers more understandable without taking too much space, please feel free to propose it.

The current iteration of the Currently deprecated sources table contains entries that are identical to the ones in the perennial sources list, but only displays sources that have been deprecated. — Newslinger talk 03:14, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense thanks, now you’ve explained how to read the header rows together. I can’t think of a brief better alternative. --Northernhenge (talk) 18:33, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Importance of RLL and EFD links

You are invited to the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#RLL and EFD for deprecated sources. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:43, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]