It sneaks in to allmost all google search results crops up in the media and magazines like its totally fantatstic or something.
It seems to me that it's more like a freely editble blog since the "Experts" who write the articles are just people who have an account.
Whats worrying me about the site is that it's being seen more and more as a valid referance source and has even been used in a few minor legal cases. It's all so troubling that some schools seem to think it's ok to use their stuff for teaching.
There are a lot of cool smart people on wikipedia but all so a ton of crazy obessive nerds and people with biases and agenders.
Most articles "Citations" are mostly copy and pasted from tiny articles in science magazines.
How has this website gotten this much acclaim and power?
What are your thoughts?
2007-09-15 19:58:34 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Internet ➔ Wikipedia
I totally agree - it's only people's opinions. Sometimes you get some really useful stuff on there from people who obviously know what they're on about but it can all be edited by anyone so a bit difficult to know what's true and what isn't
2007-09-15 20:03:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Agreed, Wikipedia does appear in most answers as a source of knowledge. The reason for the success [if that's the correct word for it] of Wikipedia, is that it is the people's encyclopedia, in that it is entirely compiled and composed by ordinary people just like us. In fact anyone anywhere can simply sign up, add, subtract and edit anything in Wikipedia.
A lot of academics pour scorn on Wikipedia - I hope you are not one of these, that small but annoying anti-democratic army of critics who write works which are published and placed in obscurantist's libraries to be forgotten forever and there to gather the dust of ages without anyone ever knowing what gobble-digook they were blathering on about.
2007-09-15 20:21:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
dude Wikipedia is powered by the people. Last year "you" was chose as person of the year. I say Long live Wikipedia. It's a great way to get a general feel for just about any subject. Nevermind all that other stuff.
2007-09-15 20:34:52 · answer #3 · answered by Nisey1121 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
It may not be 100% accurate. Nevertheless, it is informative and it has given information that is useful to the general public.
2007-09-15 20:27:32 · answer #4 · answered by Sleuth! 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋
I think one of the dangers is that many people agree (wrongly) with Canadian Bacon above, who says: "All of their articles are fact checked, and all edits are checked."
While it does provide some interesting links, the fact that it's open to editing by anyone, and has minimal supervision, makes it a problematic resource.
2007-09-15 20:10:44 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
I <3 (love) wikipedia. I use it all the time when helping my lil sis with her homework! Its really accurate. Try searching for your hometown. I searched mine and it got every fact right!
2007-09-15 23:50:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Advice from a teacher on this site some months ago, she does not advocate that her pupils use Wiki as a point of reference as the information can be misleading and inaccurate. I looked up info on Ancient Rome and found a whole paragraph on Sun dried Tomatoes, some wag had inserted it as a bit of fun. As you can imagine i was bemused and posted the question on YA. The teacher got back to me and said that it can be accessed by anyone and most definitely don't use it as a bible for information. Cross reference every thing, and i took that as good advice.
2007-09-15 20:06:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 4⤋
Isn't it strange that the people who criticise Wikipedia, never seem to come up with chapter & verse about how wrong it is!
If you feel so strongly, why not become a contributor?
I'm a librarian and use it all the time. I've never discovered a wrong fact in it. It's a fantastic resource.
2007-09-15 20:08:02 · answer #8 · answered by Andrew L 7 · 9⤊ 5⤋
Wikipedia rules. I love it. Its the best website out there.
2007-09-15 20:10:03 · answer #9 · answered by boyinlove2k 2 · 6⤊ 3⤋
All of their articles are fact checked, and all edits are checked. Wiki is accurate the vast majority of the time.
2007-09-15 20:03:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 4⤋