- You may be looking for {{facts}}, a related, but substantively different template.
{{fact}}, or {{source}}, is a template that is best thought of as a question. It might be better thought of as the please give a source for that statement template. If you see an article which makes an assertion, but fails to provide a source, you should generally try to find a source and edit it yourself. But if you don't have time, or don't know where to start looking for the source, just type in {{fact}} or {{source}} after the statement. This will draw other editors' to specific work that needs to be done on an article.
The template should not be used in the case of a statement you know — to a 100% degree of certainty — to be actually false. Patently false statements should simply be deleted. And if you're 90% or more sure that a statement is false, but you can't completely rule it out, use {{disputed}}. Think of {{fact}} as a request for verification. It's not a way to mark things that really should just be deleted.
For instance, let's say you're reading an article and you come across these two statements:
- Mel was an android from Poosh. This is most likely a false statement. It should be cut from the article. It's often a good idea to also post the statement to the Talk page of the article, along with a simple explanation of your deletion reasons. That way, if you're wrong about it being false, the information is still on hand to be easily re-integrated into the article.
- Mel met the Sixth Doctor while an assistant at a computer firm. This statement is not obviously false, but it's not something commonly known. It could easily be suspected that it might be true. Therefore a better response than cutting the information is just to flag it with {{source}}.
It is also appropriate to use this flag when looking for a reference in an article written from a real world perspective. For instance, if the statement, Tom Baker will appear as the villain in episode 5 of the 2014 season, appears at series 8 (Doctor Who 2005), you might want to use this template to demand a source in some reliable press article.
As can be imagined, what one person thinks of as "obviously" false, another person might think of as plausible. So there's an element of just "using your best judgment" about this template. Don't chastise other editors for using it the "wrong" way. As long as more sources eventually appear in articles, the more reliable the content of this wiki will be.
This wiki has a number of templates which put small, inline statements within the body of articles that seek specific improvements in articles. These include:
- Attribution request templates
- Categorised into articles with statements that need more specific attribution
- Primary documentation at {{says who}}
- These all do the same thing, but put different, contextually-appropriate phrases into the body of the article:
- Clarification request templates
- Categorised into articles with statements that need clarification
- This indicates that a statement, as worded, makes so little sense that you can't figure out how to improve it. It's not meant as a statement of incredulity. You're not saying with this that you don't believe the statement. You're saying that it's so poorly written that you have no idea what the statement means.
- {{what}}
- Source request templates
- Categorised into articles needing citation
- These templates challenge the veracity of a statement, to one degree or another, by indicating that the statement needs better sourcing:
- {{fact}} or {{source}}
- {{disputed}}
- {{facts}}, categorised into articles needing additional citations