Still Trust Wikipedia?

[American Eagle]

So yeah, as a Wikipedia editor, I get to see some behind-the-scenes that can be hilarious. This is one of my favorite goofs. A random editor added the following information, highlighted in green, to a list of Saint Louis IX of France's children. It appears Louis had a sense of humor when naming his last kid!

Saint Louis IX of France... on the Simple English Wikipedia.

That name stayed for almost two years!

[The Top Crusader]

Heh, some people live for adding random incorrect edits, it seems.

I recall once I was reading about some old arcade game and suddenly there was a information about how the final boss transforms into Saddam Hussein or something that was just weird and not really humerous.

Cheeto, though, I like.

[Anna><>]

Haha, that's funny.
I wonder if anyone wrote a report on him and said one of his children was Cheeto.

[Termite]

WIKI IS NEVER WRONG.






The occasional stupid person is, however. Like, on Aaron Gillespie's page (the ex drumer for the band Underoath) someone had added that 'I heard him and his wife were getting divorced'. Hahaha, sure.

[EK]

I should've named my kid Cheeto.

[J-man]

Who uses wikipedia as a primary source? Seriously.. 0_o

[Anna><>]

Who uses wikipedia as a primary source? Seriously.. 0_o

Basically the majority of the kids in my school. You should read their bibliographies. They have Wikipedia listed as basically their only site, and then my bibliography takes up half a page of sites that I used.

[Over the Rainbow]

Heh, one time a while ago, I was reading about a Anastasia Romanov imposter and the whole article was about the dogs this lady owned. XD

Another time, I clicked on a link to George Bush and it said, "George W. Bush is secretly a woman! Don't ask me how they got those kids..."

Once again I clicked on a link on Wiki for Mel Gibon and it simply read "Mel Gibson is hott! He's the best thing since sliced bread."

[EK]

Who uses wikipedia as a primary source? Seriously.. 0_o

I do!


I just never told any teacher I did. It's very useful for when you don't actually feel like doing research.

[The Top Crusader]

Yeah, I use it but then find some random site that is reputable to list as my source in the bibliography.

[Musical Shutterbug]

Wiki is not the best source for anything. The main reason simply is because anyone can edit anything & post what ever they want!

[EK]

Wiki is not the best source for anything. The main reason simply is because anyone can edit anything & post what ever they want!

That opens up a hole yes, but it also provides a broader range of facts than the encyclopedia can provide, and since basically everything important requires a citation, it's hard to go wrong.

[Danielle Abigail Maxwell]

Who uses wikipedia as a primary source? Seriously.. 0_o

What's amazing now is teachers are catching on... lol. They say "Must have five different sources (wiki NOT included)" or "You can have one website (wiki NOT included) and two book references". I got that when I was in high school... when I did a research paper. haha... I did like, three in my HS time. So, at least teachers are saying no wiki.

I find wiki useful to find random facts and maybe delve deeper into subjects because some websites are lame, especially with the VAST majority of them out there. But wiki is only so much dependable. I believe what most is written is true - if people can edit it and all, anyone at all, then if someone sees something wrong, they can change it.

As Batman says, you have to have a citation for a lot of things. I checked one page one day and there were 100 citations because of certain info. I was like "Well, you know where that came from". lol.

[Musical Shutterbug]

Wiki is not the best source for anything. The main reason simply is because anyone can edit anything & post what ever they want!

That opens up a hole yes, but it also provides a broader range of facts than the encyclopedia can provide, and since basically everything important requires a citation, it's hard to go wrong.

That's true. I suppose that if you have a quick question about something you could just look it up on Wiki, but when you need thorough & complete info for a school report or something,
you should NOT go to Wiki. A truly good teacher can tell when you wrote a Wiki report.

[Sapphire]

Wiki is not the best source for anything. The main reason simply is because anyone can edit anything & post what ever they want!

That opens up a hole yes, but it also provides a broader range of facts than the encyclopedia can provide, and since basically everything important requires a citation, it's hard to go wrong.

That's true. I suppose that if you have a quick question about something you could just look it up on Wiki, but when you need thorough & complete info for a school report or something,
you should NOT go to Wiki. A truly good teacher can tell when you wrote a Wiki report.

I would say you look on wiki then you look on other websites, books, etc. to support your gathered facts. You can't completely trust a website where a random person can edit it and put whatever they want.

[EK]

A truly good teacher would realize the merits of wikipedia and accept it as a source, of course you shouldn't just copy it word for word...but it can be used as a viable source since basically it's an aggregate of other sources.

Like I said, things need citations, if you look on the bottom of each wiki page you will see the sources cited for everything said there...it's a good way to fact check your wikipedia research if you feel the need.

[Musical Shutterbug]

A truly good teacher would realize the merits of wikipedia and accept it as a source, of course you shouldn't just copy it word for word...but it can be used as a viable source since basically it's an aggregate of other sources.

Like I said, things need citations, if you look on the bottom of each wiki page you will see the sources cited for everything said there...it's a good way to fact check your wikipedia research if you feel the need.

Yes, I think so too.

[Anna><>]

I use Wiki when I need titles for a bunch of slides for a powerpoint and then I just research stuff to fit under those titles. It saves the work of thinking of things to research.

[Smaug the Dragon]

I would say you look on wiki then you look on other websites, books, etc. to support your gathered facts. You can't completely trust a website where a random person can edit it and put whatever they want.

Well, what's to stop all those other websites from being just a random person putting whatever they want?

I use Wikipedia as one source of information, and compare it with other websites.

[jelly]

I would say you look on wiki then you look on other websites, books, etc. to support your gathered facts. You can't completely trust a website where a random person can edit it and put whatever they want.

Well, what's to stop all those other websites from being just a random person putting whatever they want?

no kidding. Wikipedia is more reliable then like 90% of websites out there.