Ontology:Q288

In order for a statement to be classified as "misinformation", it must first be making a claim about the real world which would be considered a fact if correct — a potential factual statement. Statements which only consist of subjective opinions cannot practically be considered misinformation. There are complicated reasons for this, having to do with the nature of arguments, dialogue, and the popular concept of "tolerating ideologies". A statement cannot be marked "misinformation" merely based on its failure to conform to an ideology such as mainstream Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism, or the purely philosophical side of center-Liberalism, considering that if this were possible it would lead individuals of different ideologies into edit wars over what statements the editors believed to be true.

When seeking to mark an entry as "misinformation", first list out the claims that compose it as completely as possible, and then look inside each claim for statements which can be shown to be wrong based on interactions with the real world which would otherwise be considered facts.

Non-binary truth value[edit]

When evaluating statements as true or false, "misinformation" can be considered a kind of truth value. In general, a statement marked this way can be considered false. However, for any given real-world situation behind a statement, it may be far less important to know that the statement is false than why it is false. This opens up the possibility of treating statements as varying levels of false in different directions, producing non-binary truth values.