Template:Says who

Instructions for {{Says who}}

{{Says who}} is a template that is best thought of as a question. It might be better thought of as the says who? template. If you see an article which makes a vague assertion about someone saying something, but the person or persons are not identified, 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 {{says who}} or {{says who?}} or even {{sezwho}} after the statement. This will draw other editors' attention to specific work that needs to be done on an article.

The template should not be used in the case of a statement you suspect to be actually false. Rather, it should alert editors to the fact that we've failed to note the person or persons who are responsible for an assertion, opinion or belief.

Usage

For instance, let's say you're reading an article and you come across these two statements:

• They says black was dflakjf;jc;zkhdfklaj This is just gibberish. It should be just be cut from the article, no questions asked.
• It was reportedly the case that Daleks were made of cheese. This is a statement of someone's belief. It's not true, but it could be true that someone had reported this falsehood. Therefore a better response than cutting the information is just insert {{says who}}.

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:

• {{which}}
• {{by whom}}
• {{says who}} or {{sezwho}}
• {{who}}

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

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