Editing Snopes (section)

==Main site==
''Snopes'' aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, including [[CNN]],<ref name="64jjH" /> [[MSNBC]],<ref name="wlXsT" /> ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'', ''[[Forbes]]'', and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="cTalM" /> By March 2009, the site had more than six million visitors per month.<ref name="OUfpj" /> David Mikkelson ran the website from his home in [[Tacoma, Washington]].<ref name="YdEuC" />

Mikkelson has stressed the ''reference'' portion of the name ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', indicating that the intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmation as well.<ref name="5VQan" /> Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.<ref name="1vYfv" />

In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Internet as authority, ''Snopes'' assembled a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".<ref name="yiitx" /> The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference to the internet slang term ''[[Internet troll|troll]]'', meaning an online [[persona]] intended to be deliberately provocative or incendiary.<ref name="Porter" />

In 2009, ''[[FactCheck.org]]'' reviewed a sample of ''Snopes''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s responses to political rumors regarding [[George W. Bush]], [[Sarah Palin]], and [[Barack Obama]], and found them to be free from bias in all cases.<ref name="FactCheck" /><ref name="gMMvx" /> In 2012, ''[[The Florida Times-Union]]'' reported that ''[[About.com]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s urban legends researcher found a "consistent effort to provide even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous reputable analyses of its content confirm its accuracy.<ref name="ZuMCn" />

Mikkelson has said that the site receives more complaints of liberal bias than conservative bias, but added that the same debunking standards are applied to all political urban legends.<ref name="FactCheck" />