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Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by PhantomLimb
I think that Wiki is a great overview source. I often use it just to establish a basic understanding of what I am writing about.
But I do agree, for highly controversial or technical issues, Wiki is not always on the ball.
~Heff
Originally posted by PhantomLimb
We all know that Wikipedia entries can be changed by anyone with an account on Wikipedia's site. So, why is it such a common source? It seems that something that had pages deliberately changed by Stephen Colbert fans is not a great source and yet time and time again it pops up.
I think it's intellectually lazy to use Wiki. Every time you Google something in the first handful of links there is it's Wiki entry. So, someone copies the link and posts it in a reply and they base an argument off of it or try to one up someone as fast as possible. I have used Wiki before, but was extremely selective on what I used it for. Now, I'm not going to use it at all if possible.
What do all of you readers think of Wiki as a source?edit on 1/23/2011 by PhantomLimb because: (no reason given)
The credibility of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has taken another dive after a newly developed software program exposed how the CIA, corporations like Diebold and others routinely edit entries to bury criticism and manipulate the truth. In one of our previous investigations, we revealed how a group of trolls were engaged in a concerted campaign to erase the 9/11 truth movement, along with a host of other controversial subjects, out of cyber existence by voting to delete pages about subjects and individuals that obviously warrant a page on Wikipedia. Examples we cited included such manifestly provable "conspiracy theories" as "List of Republican sex scandals," "People questioning the 9/11 Commission Report" and "Movement to impeach George W. Bush". Trolls were even allowed to delete the Wiki page for Dylan Avery, who has appeared on Fox News, CNN and in hundreds of newspaper reports. Avery is the producer of the most watched documentary film in Internet history, he clearly merits a biography page on an online encyclopedia, but Wikipedia had no qualms in letting Morton Devonshire and other trolls deep six the entry.
The Wikipedia Scanner (wikiscanner.virgil.gr...) also allows users to type in an IP range and find out which organizations are editing what pages on Wikipedia.
"The result: A database of 5.3 million edits, performed by 2.6 million organizations or individuals ranging from the CIA to Microsoft to Congressional offices, now linked to the edits they or someone at their organization's net address has made. Some of this appears to be transparently self-interested, either adding positive, press release-like material to entries, or deleting whole swaths of critical material," concludes the Wired report.