Usefulness of Wikipedia
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My mistake. He didn't mean that his students use it as a reference (on a paper, for example). He meant that his students use it in the belief that it is an credible source of information. I didn't know that academic institutions prohibit citing Wikipedia. It would explain a lot.
It is a good starting point. I like the external references on the bottom of the wiki pages. Normally those are the sites that may be cited.
Later, JoeSox CPMCv1.0 - humanaiproject.org - Last.fm - pswrdgen - Joesox.com
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I had lunch with a friend (an academic) some time last week. He elaborated at length on the many factual errors he finds in Wikipedia articles on his field of expertise. He said that he has tried on sereval instances to correct this (as his students keep using Wikipedia as a source) only to find his corrections systematically erased within days. The problem, he said, was that there is no critical assessment of the literature on which contributors based their opinions. His final assessment was that ego rules over reason in Wikipedia and that the ultimate usefulness of Wikipedia (under this circumstance) can be no more than entertainment. I've never paid much for Wikipedia but I was intrigued and decided to test out my friend's observations. He was right. Factual errors abound and corrections quickly lead to, apparently so-called, "edit wars". What are your thoughts on and experiences with Wikipedia?
For purely technical or dry historical topics Wikipedia is usually very good, especially with the more esoteric ones. On subjective topics, Wikipedia tends to be fairly bad. The biggest problem are obsessive contributors who "camp" out on topics and make sure nothing is stated that disagrees with their viewpoint. I've run across topics that have nothing but nonsense information and others where the information is correct but limited.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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I had lunch with a friend (an academic) some time last week. He elaborated at length on the many factual errors he finds in Wikipedia articles on his field of expertise. He said that he has tried on sereval instances to correct this (as his students keep using Wikipedia as a source) only to find his corrections systematically erased within days. The problem, he said, was that there is no critical assessment of the literature on which contributors based their opinions. His final assessment was that ego rules over reason in Wikipedia and that the ultimate usefulness of Wikipedia (under this circumstance) can be no more than entertainment. I've never paid much for Wikipedia but I was intrigued and decided to test out my friend's observations. He was right. Factual errors abound and corrections quickly lead to, apparently so-called, "edit wars". What are your thoughts on and experiences with Wikipedia?
DaTxomin wrote:
He said that he has tried on sereval instances to correct this [...] only to find his corrections systematically erased within days.
DaTxomin wrote:
His final assessment was that ego rules over reason in Wikipedia
Damn egomaniacs, making contentious edits without bothering to engage other editors in discussion. :rolleyes:
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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.
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I had lunch with a friend (an academic) some time last week. He elaborated at length on the many factual errors he finds in Wikipedia articles on his field of expertise. He said that he has tried on sereval instances to correct this (as his students keep using Wikipedia as a source) only to find his corrections systematically erased within days. The problem, he said, was that there is no critical assessment of the literature on which contributors based their opinions. His final assessment was that ego rules over reason in Wikipedia and that the ultimate usefulness of Wikipedia (under this circumstance) can be no more than entertainment. I've never paid much for Wikipedia but I was intrigued and decided to test out my friend's observations. He was right. Factual errors abound and corrections quickly lead to, apparently so-called, "edit wars". What are your thoughts on and experiences with Wikipedia?
Yup, exactly the same thing happened to me. I made an edit in an area about a particular fact that was incorrect and in an area of my interest which I've spent years learning about, it was a fact not open to any interpretation and some jackass reverted the edit. I reverted it again and told them to quit fucking with it without doing a little research first and it's stood so far, but I realized life is too short to bother. Wikipedia should invite guest experts to work on various areas then lock them down from the public. I think WikiPedia is only useful in narrow categories and areas which are very common knowledge such as pop culture, tv episode guides etc and in more arcane or grown up areas it's only useful as a way to discover more potential search terms to find the information on a more authoritative source. If I was a teacher and anyone handed in something with a reference to Wikipedia I send it right back.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Yup, exactly the same thing happened to me. I made an edit in an area about a particular fact that was incorrect and in an area of my interest which I've spent years learning about, it was a fact not open to any interpretation and some jackass reverted the edit. I reverted it again and told them to quit fucking with it without doing a little research first and it's stood so far, but I realized life is too short to bother. Wikipedia should invite guest experts to work on various areas then lock them down from the public. I think WikiPedia is only useful in narrow categories and areas which are very common knowledge such as pop culture, tv episode guides etc and in more arcane or grown up areas it's only useful as a way to discover more potential search terms to find the information on a more authoritative source. If I was a teacher and anyone handed in something with a reference to Wikipedia I send it right back.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
John C wrote:
Wikipedia should invite guest experts to work on various areas then lock them down from the public.
Wouldn't be much of a wiki then. :)
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
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Yup, exactly the same thing happened to me. I made an edit in an area about a particular fact that was incorrect and in an area of my interest which I've spent years learning about, it was a fact not open to any interpretation and some jackass reverted the edit. I reverted it again and told them to quit fucking with it without doing a little research first and it's stood so far, but I realized life is too short to bother. Wikipedia should invite guest experts to work on various areas then lock them down from the public. I think WikiPedia is only useful in narrow categories and areas which are very common knowledge such as pop culture, tv episode guides etc and in more arcane or grown up areas it's only useful as a way to discover more potential search terms to find the information on a more authoritative source. If I was a teacher and anyone handed in something with a reference to Wikipedia I send it right back.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
I think this is a cautionary tale to those who want to try the same thing here on CP. There are simply too many morons here for a wiki to ever work - you would have to spend a good part of each day undoing the nonsense.
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Graham Shanks wrote:
see change history for the entry for "Earth"
Topic not found.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Paul Watson wrote:
Topic not found.
That's probably the best edit it's ever had.
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No one source should ever be trusted. I believe, if you pull information from multiple sources, circle the commonalities, it is there in which you'll find more truth than not. Obviously, there are still cases where even that would fail (i.e., pulling from too many like minded sources), so common sense still must play a major roll in the information gathering process.
Last modified: 2hrs 24mins after originally posted --
Douglas Troy wrote:
I believe, if you pull information from multiple sources, circle the commonalities, it is there in which you'll find more truth than not.
There's a marvellous TV show called QI that quickly puts paid to such faith in common knowledge.
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I think this is a cautionary tale to those who want to try the same thing here on CP. There are simply too many morons here for a wiki to ever work - you would have to spend a good part of each day undoing the nonsense.
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I had lunch with a friend (an academic) some time last week. He elaborated at length on the many factual errors he finds in Wikipedia articles on his field of expertise. He said that he has tried on sereval instances to correct this (as his students keep using Wikipedia as a source) only to find his corrections systematically erased within days. The problem, he said, was that there is no critical assessment of the literature on which contributors based their opinions. His final assessment was that ego rules over reason in Wikipedia and that the ultimate usefulness of Wikipedia (under this circumstance) can be no more than entertainment. I've never paid much for Wikipedia but I was intrigued and decided to test out my friend's observations. He was right. Factual errors abound and corrections quickly lead to, apparently so-called, "edit wars". What are your thoughts on and experiences with Wikipedia?