 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Verifiability is a matter of degree. Being more easily verifiable by as many readers as possible is generally good, but there needs to be some balance with a separate goal of WP, that of making contributions easy. |
Verifiability is an ideal standard that is never fully attained. It is at best a matter of degree. It is relative to a particular group of readers, to individuals within that group, to the subject area in which it is considered, to a particular source, to the language of an article, to conventions, to policies, guidelines, and essays, and possibly to other considerations. It may be considered completely subjective, somewhat objective given conventions, or to be objective, but it is never absolute.
The best we can do is to make something more verifiable or less verifiable, relative to some set of standards. We can never ultimately say something is verifiable, only that it is somewhat verifiable. For example, even if a complete source is provided, one can always object that the context of the source has not been provided.