Wikiclaim:What belongs in Wikiclaim?

TL;DREdit

Wikiclaim is for claims. For our purposes, a claim is a statement which can be supported with empirical evidence, either directly, or through chains of claims.

A claim should be concise. Compound statements can be broken down into multiple claims. Also, a claim is not an argument.

PreferenceEdit

We generally prefer a claim if

• It is useful to know the answer to
• It is fruitfully debatable

It is not exactly clear how to define useful. Wikipedia uses notability as its standard for inclusion of content, which may be a good option for us to use as well. However, a claim should not need to have references if it can be reasonably linked to other claims which have references.

Types of claimsEdit

There are several different types of claims. Some belong in Wikiclaim, some don't, and for some it is still to be determined. Since Wikiclaim is new we still need to work out the details.

Examples of Claims

Example	Description	Belongs in Wikiclaim?
2 + 2 = 4; The Pythagorean Theorem; The Riemann Hypothesis	Mathematical	No
Shakespeare was gay	Speculative; Notable; Trivia	Maybe?
Conan O'Brien has red hair	Trivia fact	Probably not
The San Francisco homeless shelter system does not have enough beds	Benefits from empirical studies and data	Yes
The Earth's climate is warming	Benefits from empirical studies and data	Yes
God is real	Religious; not well defined; can't apply empirical evidence	No
Politician so-and-so did such-and-such	Political; personality based	Probably not
My friend Joe is a jerk	Not notable; Not useful	No
Bowling is a sport	Purely semantic	No

Currently our criteria for a claim to be included in Wikiclaim are:

• The claim is clearly formed so that can be argued for/against, with empirical evidence.
  • If a claim depends so much on semantics that its meaning would change significantly from applying a Rationalist Taboo, it does not belong in Wikiclaim.
• The claim is not completely mathematical or logic based
  • Such claims fit better in the domain of a pure logic system, not one based on empirical evidence. See Proofwiki.
• We prefer claims that are not purely trivia (this restriction might be relaxed later)
  • We prefer not to cover urban legends and rumors such as covered on Snopes.
  • We cover statements, not their political proponents. (Compare The United States has among highest rates of unintended pregnancy in the developed world to Politifact's coverage of an activist's related claim (which is cited here on Wikiclaim!).

The idea is that the claim is useful to know the answer to, and it is a fruitfully debatable claim.