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Archiver > TMG > 2006-07 > 1151815573


From: "DeAnna Burghart" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] source output form
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:46:13 -0700
In-Reply-To: <7.0.0.16.2.20060701174657.04c95d18@acm.org>


Lee wrote:
>> the report may get copied to wind up being read by your great-grandson's
mother-in-law's 2nd cousin's grandson who is looking for information about
their great-great-grandfather and this is the only reference they have ever
found about him.<<

In Ancestry's wildest fantasies they *might* still be in business then. :P I
think it's patently (and sadly) obvious at this point that
HeritageQuestOnline will not be. Either way, I still maintain the
illustrated concise citation would happily suffice. Probably our
g-g-grandkids will all be back to researching in the archives and FHCs
again, since it will be such a drag reading census films on the
now-ubiquitous hi-speed WiFi 802.35p PDAs grafted to their palms. (Pun fully
intended.)

As for the need to cite as fully as possible because of possible typos,
overkill in the name of protecting against FFS (Fat Finger Syndrome) seems
to me akin to the proverbial slaughter of a gnat with a sledgehammer. And
having said that publicly, I can now only pray that every draft of my own
research, if and when I ever publish in any form, is completely free of
error. LOL (And yes, I do include EDs, but not SDs, and I am no longer
worrying about individual line numbers.)

Hyperbole aside, point taken on both sides, I think. My main concern is not
that this become less important. I was brought up on intercollegiate debate,
so I'm well versed in research and citation and the need to do them
thoroughly. As I said, I just think we might, as a collective, be getting a
bit too obsessive about it. Bob Sawyer's satirical letter in Richard Pence's
essay comes to mind, and makes this assay -- like so many of the cumbersome
citations I'm commenting on -- more than a little redundant. So I'll hush
now. Rather out of my usual idiom, I realize, but it was 95F here today and
I'm tired. ;)

D-

P.S.: For those who haven't had the pleasure, Mr. Pence's essay "How Much
Documentation" can be found at
http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/classdoc.htm#parttwo. It's online,
last accessed 1 July 2006 (Pacific time), and -- as far as I know -- a
digital copy. ;)

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