Wikipedia as a Reliable Source Log Out | Topics | Search
Moderators | Register | Edit Profile

Wild Poetry Forum » ~NATUROPATHY~ (Library Forum) » Writing: General Topics » Wikipedia as a Reliable Source « Previous Next »

Author Message
Mariah Wilson
Intermediate Member
Username: mariahwilson43

Post Number: 663
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 5:29 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I offer a warning about wikipedia.

Anyone can edit it, some colleges in the states have banned students from using wikipedia for research in their studies even. This is because anyone can edit it. Boy could Fred ever have a lot of fun LOL. I just want to warn people of that fact. I also offer an alternative.

www.encarta.msn.com

They have extensive articles on any subject you could imagine, maps, pictures, homework helper, quizzes and oh so much more. The best part is, you can rest assured that the information you find there will be accurate, or at least it darn well better be.
Maybe you'd drive better if that cell phone was up your A--!
Judy Thompson
Intermediate Member
Username: judyt54

Post Number: 795
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 5:35 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

the only good thing about Wikipedia is that you CAN edit it (and one can always cross check your facts, which you should anyway). I found a really good listing for T. S. Eliot in there, which stated "the British poet". yikes. When I decide to register, I'll probably slide in and change that, unless someone else already has.

I don't dare look at the Frost entry. They probably have him born in Vermont with an alternate birthplace in New Hampshire. and maine.
Christopher T George
Senior Member
Username: chrisgeorge

Post Number: 6141
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 5:41 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Hi Mariah

Thank you so much for this information. Yes indeed the great weakness of Wikipedia is that anyone with a computer connection can edit it or make mischief on it. In fact the volunteer editors at Wiki spend considerable time looking out for vandalism and mending what has been done by troublemakers.

I suppose Wiki's owner Jimmy Wales and the Wiki admin believe in keeping the site open to anyone to edit because of the vaunted "freedom of the internet." However, it appears to me that it defeats the object of it as a resource if any Joe Schmoe can change things or mess things up. They really need to tighten up on who should be allowed to edit or alter the entries in Wiki, IMHO.

I will keep encarta in mind, Mariah, so thanks for the tip.

Chris
Editor, Desert Moon Review
http://www.desertmoonreview.com
Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://www.lochravenreview.net
http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/
Christopher T George
Senior Member
Username: chrisgeorge

Post Number: 6142
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 5:47 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Hi Judy

Although American born, in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888, Eliot became a British subject in 1927 and probably viewed himself as British despite his birthplace. He has been counted as a "British poet" by people in the British literary community as well. By the way, on the Wiki page for "The Waste Land" check out, at the bottom of the page, the link to a satire on the poem. wink

Chris
Editor, Desert Moon Review
http://www.desertmoonreview.com
Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://www.lochravenreview.net
http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/
Judy Thompson
Intermediate Member
Username: judyt54

Post Number: 796
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 7:22 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

thanks for the heads up, Chris, but to me, no matter where you end up, and what you call yourself, where you started counts a great deal.
it's a lot like moving to france and getting french citizenship, and calling yourself a french poet, even if you were born in Canarsie.

In this part of the country Frost is called a native son, and worked, apparently for years, to sound like one, and act the part. It is, however, hard to be the native son of three states with birthplaces in four... *g*

and thanks for the link to the satire. *g*

Its also good to know that the wikipedia guys don't run a totally unmanaged board.
Tina Hoffman
Advanced Member
Username: tina_hoffman

Post Number: 1278
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 7:38 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I love Wikipedia....

It's free. And yes, content is editable and subject to hackers (my daughter and her bf actually went in and edited something as a joke but there are folks who are watching and correcting and not big brother, either...

There are people taking ownership of it, but it is still up to the reader/user of info. to cross-reference the info. to verify it's accuracy. When I write historical fiction or lookup info. for authenticity, I don't stop with one reference. It means that much to me...



Thanks for sharing this Mariah - keeping informed is the key, and passing it on keeps the information flowing. Word of mouth, tantamount!

Just ask Grandma. But don't believe everything she tells ya...she's a CNN junkie. LOL

:-)
Best,
Tina
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love."

~Sophocles
Gary Blankenship
Moderator
Username: garydawg

Post Number: 22396
Registered: 07-2001
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 8:38 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I use it also and like Tina, do verification.

The biggest problem is not inaccurate data but bad data - look for the note - no citations included - and for posts that read mostly like opinion than fact.

I use for the more arcane items, and would not for something regarding current news etc where the hackers are really likely to show up...

I read one yesterday on pike, the fish, that was so poorly written I thought a grade schooler had posted it. But there was a great link to a good pike site and info.

As always as said on Hill Street Blues - Be careful out there...

Smiles.

Gary
Mariah Wilson
Intermediate Member
Username: mariahwilson43

Post Number: 666
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 8:55 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Maybe I'm just lazy but...

I hardly see the point of using a site to get information if you KNOW that you are going to have to re-check and cross reference it. Maybe I'm just lazy but I'd much rather go to a site I know that I can trust to provide me with accurate and up to date information.
Maybe you'd drive better if that cell phone was up your A--!
Fred Longworth
Senior Member
Username: sandiegopoet

Post Number: 3308
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 9:17 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Fred's edit of Mariah's comment (just a few words removed):

I offer wikipedia.

Anyone can . . . use wikipedia for research in their studies. This is . . . fact.

They have extensive articles on any subject you could imagine, maps, pictures, homework helper, quizzes and oh so much more. The best part is, you can rest assured that the information you find there will be accurate, or at least it darn well better be.

Unofficial Forum Pariah
recent victim of alien abduction
Lazarus
Senior Member
Username: lazarus

Post Number: 3040
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 9:24 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Mariah- If you look at the wiki world as a crossection of the current beliefs it serves very well as an indicator of reality "as we know it." I count on the wiki police to take out anything that is pure idiocy, they also lock controversial subjects, a pointer in itself of the subjects volititlity.

As to going to MSN for all your encyclopedic needs, I would caution against it. There is something sinister about the hold the Microsoft people want to have on everything computer.

Chris! I read your Waste Land satire. I had not realized you had one too! (Maybe you told me when I posted mine here, and I missed it) I thought about linking mine too, but I think I'll wait until I have the recorded version up at Soundzine.
-Laz
LJ Cohen
Moderator
Username: ljc

Post Number: 8898
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 9:30 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Mariah,

I think there is danger in assuming any one source of information to be complete and unbiased. Not only is fact checking and cross checking vital, it is also important to look at where specific information is coming from, eg a .edu or a .gov source versus a .com source.

And while the net is a convenient place to find information, for me, it is a starting place, rather than an ending place in any research.
Once in a Blue Muse Blog
LJCohen
Kathy Paupore
Moderator
Username: kathy

Post Number: 7706
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 10:00 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

My daughter's highschool doesn't allow them to use Wikipedia as a source for research papers and projects.

:-) K
You're invited to:

Wild Flowers

This above all, ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: Must I write?--Rilke
Fred Longworth
Senior Member
Username: sandiegopoet

Post Number: 3315
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 - 9:42 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

www.theultimatetruthfreeoferrorbiasprejudiceandyechycorporateinfluence.edu
Unofficial Forum Pariah
recent victim of alien abduction
S. Thomas Summers
Intermediate Member
Username: s_thomas_summers

Post Number: 888
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 - 4:11 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I don't let my students use it.
visit me at http://www.freewebs.com/sthomassummers/

author of "Death settled well" and "Rather, It Should Shine"
Gary Blankenship
Moderator
Username: garydawg

Post Number: 22432
Registered: 07-2001
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 9:28 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I find it works as a quick way to find out something. For example, for a coming Song, I need to know where the Altamahaw River is. Wiki will give me location, quick info and probably links to other pages.

Smiles.

Gary
Judy Thompson
Intermediate Member
Username: judyt54

Post Number: 814
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 9:53 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

google will usually link to almost anything out there, and gives multiple sources to do so.

Wikipedia is often a quick way to find something, and while for the most part it works well for basic stuff (math, scientific principles, 'hard' facts), I tend usually cross link with another source to see what someone else has to say.

however, I think the same can be said for using any outside source for information, always double check your sources, online or off.