I changed one of the sections with a significant amount of information. Now, I believe what I added was true. However, I can see someone adding or subtracting whatever they wanted with no controls. That seems like pretty bad form for something that offers what it considers public information.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Wikipedia is a user-created encyclopedia of, well... everything. I do believe they have content-checkers, so when an article is changed someone goes over and doublechecks the data. A good policy, of course, is to always have two sources when you look something up. I personally have never had info found on wikipedia contradict information found elsewhere.
When info is removed from an article, I doubt anything is really lost-- the pages are probably all saved somewhere so that they can be resotred in the event that vandalism occurs. Editors identifications are recorded so that the proper parties can be punished (For instance, my schools IP was banned from editing wikipedia pages after someone defaced one of their articles).
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Ketchupqueen, that is why I started this one. I remembered something like it, but couldn't find it. Perhaps it was too long ago for the history search to find.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I remember a thread called "come play with Bernard's wiki" or something like that, about a wikipedia type thing that Bernard had. Was that the thread you mean?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I've found wikipedia always to be wonderful. Not only telling true information, but exactly the information you want to know about whatever is the entry topic.
I'm not quite sure why it works so well. You'd think they would be more error and stupidity and ... well... the average of stuff on the internet. Instead it seems to be able to glean the very best.
Does anyone understand why it works so well? Are there scores of brilliant dedicated wikipedists beavering away to check facts and omit idiocy wherever they encounter it?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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ya, they do have core people who constantly check on changes. They aren't paid or anything...they just take pride in the work. Basically, the open source mentality.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I want so much NOT to be patronizing. But it's too hard. Is that pronounced wike-pedia or wi-ke-pedia?
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Just out of curiosity, Occasional, what article did you change, and what did you add?
Please note that I mean nothing snarky by this, and I am not attempting to be confrontational. As I said, it is purely out of curiosity.
Posts: 1357 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Wikipedia is a great place to get started on a research paper. I don't trust the dates or facts 100%, but there's usually references to other sources which can point me in the right direction.
It's also an easy place to reference if someone asks you something like, what's a JPEG?Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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I love the concept, and the fact that it seems to really work. Wikinews is excellent, too, as well as Wicktionary.
I hope they keep growing and adding more sections. Wikistories would be awesome, a section containing "landmark post" type life stories from people of all ages and cultures all over the globe. Another thing I think would be grand is Wikihowto, a collection of tutorials on everything from plumbing to programming to auto repair to skyscraper design to genetic engineering to brain surgery. Basically everything I figure out how to do, I'd like to make a record of that so that I could refer to it in the future, and so that anyone else could benefit from my efforts. Also I have specific questions right now about roofing and plumbing, which I would like to have answered. I want to do the jobs myself, but I don't want the work to suffer from my lack of experience in those areas. Maybe they could be arranged by job category, with sections at the end on what was learned and what we would do different next time. Usually I really know how to do a job exactly the way I'd like, only after I've just finished doing it. Unless I undertake another similar job right away, it's easy to forget much of what I've learned before the next time. There should totally be a place to record and access things like that, so that our techniques are constantly improving, and we can take full advantage of each other's experience. Wikihowto seems like the perfect way to do this.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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