Explanatory essay about the Wikipedia:Verifiability page
This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously.
This page in a nutshell: Simply saying that a horse has five legs doesn't make it true – calling a horse's tail a leg does not make it one.
Itstill has four legs.
Jack and the Five Legged Horse
My uncle once said, "Boy, do you see that horse?"
Yessir.
"How many legs does that horse have?"
Four.
"Now what if I say that a horse's tail is a leg, too?"
Uh...
"If I call a horse's tail a leg, how many legs does that horse have?"
Five?
"Boy, will you never learn? It doesn't matter what you call something. That horse still has four legs."[1]
Sometimes when confronted with a difficult challenge we reply, That's not true! We say, That's not a (vanity COI page)/(rant)/(personal attack)/(tail); that's a (noteworthy article)/(discussion)/(polite comment)/(leg). But this changes nothing.
It's never enough to reply to a comment by saying You're wrong! That's not true! If it really is a leg, then show us how.
When arguing, make sure you add really new legs to your stand.
Some editors are so convinced that the horse has five legs that they will continue to return to the issue long after everybody else has accepted the consensus view that horses have four legs. Many of the most dedicated proponents of the five-leg school will assert that fivelegism is as valid a view as fourlegism, and that fourlegism is only a point of view. Often they will continue this to the point where they are, in truth, beating the bloody mark where the dead horse once lay.
If someone is writing about a horse that has five legs then, as tedious and boring as it may be, it is a good idea to check the references and reasons they have written about it. It may just be there was a genetic manipulation, or surgical graft, or something else altogether. Just because the only horses you have encountered have had four legs, doesn't mean that a five legged horse might not exist.[2] Some deer have five legs.[3]
^Hardcastle, Joseph (1883). "Criticisms on "A Criticism on Averaging Accounts."". American Counting-room. 7–8. Counting-Room Co.: 79. Jack! Suppose a horse's tail a leg, how many legs would it have?" "Five." "No."『How's that ?』"All your suppositions would not make the tail a leg." But if Bill had said to Jack: "Jack! Suppose a horse's tail is counted as a leg, how many counts, as legs, would there be for a horse ?' "Five." "Quite right, Jack.
