Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Wikipedia

Have you ever looked something up on wikipedia? Do you consider it a reliable source in general, or just for some specific things, or not at all?

I have found that for some things that I used to just google, I now search on wikipedia directly instead. I do not consider it a definitive source of anything, but I do consider it a valid resource for things that are not generally considered debatable. For example, if I want to know the land area of North America, I'll look there.

I've also found it fascinating to see some of the arguements people have on the "talk" pages; I have to wonder if some of these people represent large factions that actually believe what they are saying, or are just the lunatic fringe I devoutly hope they are. The capacity of human beings for self-delusion, ignorance, and paranoia amazes me.

4 comments:

Toni said...

I use wikipedia whenever I need to know the general jist of something *quickly* - when I need to know in 10 seconds or less why I should care about a particular topic.

I also have contributed a few articles and edited it. It's fun!

Check out my contributions (if you're _really_ bored)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Morganie

Gridley said...

Wow, I think you're the first person that I know has edited a wikipedia entry. Cool! :-)

Raising Them Jewish said...

I love Wikipedia. There have been MANY studies done where people have posted wrong info. A professor at UPenn put in wrong information on three different pages. One was totally wrong, one was slightly wrong, and the last was sort of a nuance. He thought it would take at least 3 days to change things. It took less than 3 hours for ALL three to be noticed and changed.

I can't say that it's 100% accurate, but I use it A LOT for things that I want general information on. And for news related things, so I can get more than going to several different news sites.

Gridley said...

Yes, though people are always putting in wrong information too. :-(