Do you trust wikipedia ?

[tennisball80]

Just curiously, do you trust all the information you see on Wikipedia ? I have heard that there are false information on there and now I am kinda afraid to use wikipedia.

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[yanorglu]

Not so much false information, but rather it's a lack of information.

 

[niblet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia (The whole concept of this article is . It's like the Liar Paradox.)

For the most part, I do trust Wikipedia. Don't use it as a source in a research paper, though. Most teachers disapprove of it being used that way. If you want to know more about a specific topic, Wikipedia's excellent.

 

[SketchsaurusRex]

i only use wiki when i want to get the gist of something but its definitely not reference material.

 

[RySerr21]

If you are writing a resarch paper or something definitely dont use wikipedia as a reference just because its not something you do...use a primary article or textbook or something......but in general it is pretty accurate. If you just want to look up something you havent heard of or want to learn more about its a good source of info for the most part. Most of the things said have reference links so you can always check up where that info came from. Ive used it in a bunch of classes like biochem or anatomy if i just want to quicky look up something and i dont have my book.

 

[Salvorix]

Wikipedia has always been pretty accurate for me. For substantial/well-known topics Wiki is fairly closely moderated...vandalism is quickly and meticulously reverted as I have found out from first hand experience years ago lol like other people have said, don't cite Wiki...if you want cite random references at the bottom a Wikipedia page.

 

[broken tibula]

I use it for general information, but most teachers I know specifically state, usually in some kind of bold formatting: Wikipedia is not an acceptable source. I think I read somewhere that, on the whole, Wikipedia actually has a lower percentage of errors than most published encyclopaedia, but I'm pretty sure I read that online, so it's probably wrong.

The great alternative is to pull up the article, read it, then scroll to the bottom and check out the references that were used for the article. It's a wonderfully efficient system.

 

[DrYoda]

If the fact in question is cited with a reputable source I will trust it.

 

[engineeredout]

Just curiously, do you trust all the information you see on Wikipedia ? I have heard that there are false information on there and now I am kinda afraid to use wikipedia.

Trust it more than SDN

 

[tennisball80]

Trust it more than SDN

lol

 

[gotmilklol]

Ya I definitely trust it
Cause its written by professional writers and its pretty descriptive on topics than most sites

 

[broken tibula]

...professional writers?

 

[gotmilklol]

ya my friend says most of the articles are written by professionals..

 

[DrYoda]

ya my friend says most of the articles are written by professionals..

Whoever wants to write them can write them, sometimes it's the professionals other times it's not.

 

[broken tibula]

Heh. Not really.

Obviously, some of them are, but it's not like Wikipedia only allows experts to add information, and that's where the danger lies.

 

[gotmilklol]

i guess so but don't they check or something

 

[EulerianCircuit]

If you are writing a resarch paper or something definitely dont use wikipedia as a reference just because its not something you do...use a primary article or textbook or something

I just went to the annual meeting of the Texas Section of the MAA. One of the professors presenting there cited wikipedia in his abstract.

For the most part, I think wikipedia is pretty accurate. I have seen a few articles that were wrong though, one of which I corrected.

 

[Vicviper]

If the fact in question is cited with a reputable source I will trust it.

Yeah, this is one great thing about wikipedia, very often the facts are cited. When I'm doing lab reports or whatever and I need more research I often look up the topic on wiki, find the information I'm looking for, and then go to it's citation and look there.

 

[xnfs93hy]

If the fact in question is cited with a reputable source I will trust it.

 

[VMSmith]

i learned medicine from wikipedia

 

[JJMrK]

I mostly use it to look up sports statistics.

 

[lirpa]

here is a good article on the accuracy of wiki!!..i dont think you can truly trust anything on the internet, except of course peer reviewed articles from online journels that have been published or what not..pdf files??!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4530930.stm

 

[0Complications]

Yeah, this is one great thing about wikipedia, very often the facts are cited. When I'm doing lab reports or whatever and I need more research I often look up the topic on wiki, find the information I'm looking for, and then go to it's citation and look there.

I do this too. It's a great source of some articles that relate specifically to your topic if it's a relatively new discovery or there just isn't a lot of info out there about it. Then you can hit the references of the articles you find on Wiki.

Great for summaries and the general ideas, not so hot for peer-reviewed content.

 

[freakystud]

depends on articles...

 

[Green Grass]

As an M1 it's your best friend. Use it, love it.

 

[bobdjojo]

redacted

 

[DLi]

Wikipedia has the facts on pretty much everything. I usually trust Wikipedia over the millions of other websites on these little-documented sources.