rationalskepticism.org

Hermit wrote:

Cito di Pense wrote:Why would somebody attempt to use wikipedia to make any progress on substantive issues in European history or historical linguistics?

Nevets did not aim for progress. He tried to use the Wikipedia as supports for his propositions. He failed for one or a combination of three more or less intertwined reasons:

1) The Wikipedia snippet he quoted did not say what he thought it did, sometimes to the extent of outrightly contradicting what he thought it proves.

2) He used a Wikipedia snippet in an attempt to make a point that was not applicable to his argument. E.g. the link to the Ahrensburg culture bears no relationship whatsoever to Anglo culture circa 12,000 years later.

3) Even when Nevets quoted a snippet from the Wikipedia that meant what he said it did and was relevant to the topic at hand, he more often managed to draw conclusions from it that simply did not follow.