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Wikipedia Accuracy

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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=75662
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Topic: Wikipedia Accuracy
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Subject: Wikipedia Accuracy
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 12:34
Sometimes I use wiki for a quick reference mostly for aviation realated subject matter but find that it is highly innacurate. Who writes all this crap and how can I can I correct it if I have time? Not that I really care but sometimes the errors are atrocious.

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Replies:
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 12:38
Use the edit function on any wiki page.

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http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 12:41
I can just play God then ?

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Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 12:44
Yes. But the site owners may possibly undo your work. Depends how they view it. I haven't edited a page for ages.

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http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 13:24
They are trying to up it's credibility and stop silly editing. If you need to change something it's best to discuss it first and have be able to give good citations and reference sources for your information - personal memory/knowledge is not enough.

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What?


Posted By: Angelo
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 13:48
Correct. There's a discussion area behind each page where you can do this. You get there by clicking 'Discussion', above each article title. 

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http://www.iskcrocks.com" rel="nofollow - ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected]


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 04 2011 at 14:40
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

They are trying to up it's credibility and stop silly editing. If you need to change something it's best to discuss it first and have be able to give good citations and reference sources for your information - personal memory/knowledge is not enough.


Well, it's about some of the planes I actually flew. So my corrections will be coming from the horse's mouth. Not only do I see a lot of errors on Wikipedia but on tons of other sites. I duno  You can't take everything on the web as gospel. The nature of the beast. I'll give it a try by discussing it.


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Posted By: Formentera Lady
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 07:44
Actually it is simple. Create an account. Then you can edit anything. It will be reviewed by reviewers. If your changes are reasonable and if no one opposes your changes, it will be approved. If you do many approved edits you can rise in the hierarchy and become a reviewer yourself.

Who is high in the hierarchy depends on edit counting (not expert knowledge). For example, you can accumulate edit counting by correcting in the articles grammar and spelling.
That is the reason why I do not trust wikipedia very much. Consulting wikipedia is like asking a mass of people what they think about a certain problem. You do not ask experts. The result of your query is what a lot of people think about this question.
The advantage of wiki is that you get a quick answer on practically anything. It is quite accurate on technical issues, where there is only one right or wrong.
The disadvantage is that it is not an expert answer. And in social questions where you can have different opinions it is quite inaccurate. In obscure topics you might get obscure answers, because too few people viewed it to correct errors.

These are reasons I do not participate on wiki (german) regularly. I only correct obvious errors (like birth dates of people and things like that.)


Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 08:19
 
Originally posted by Vibrationbaby Vibrationbaby wrote:

Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

They are trying to up it's credibility and stop silly editing. If you need to change something it's best to discuss it first and have be able to give good citations and reference sources for your information - personal memory/knowledge is not enough.

Well, it's about some of the planes I actually flew. So my corrections will be coming from the horse's mouth. Not only do I see a lot of errors on Wikipedia but on tons of other sites. I duno  You can't take everything on the web as gospel. The nature of the beast. I'll give it a try by discussing it.

Yeah, if the deletionists notice that they're not going to let you by without a citation. Whether they do depends on the profile of the article. There have been a rash of articles about Wikipedia because of its birthday, and basically the number of contributers has been declining steadily since 2004 or so because normal people are getting tired of arguing with the circle-jerking editors to keep their contributions up, so there's mostly only the power users left. I've never felt the need to edit Wikipedia except for a few grammar errors that I couldn't bear in the (increasingly rare) unprotected articles. I wish I had gotten an account back in the day for the street cred, though. 

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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 08:23
Originally posted by Henry Plainview Henry Plainview wrote:

 
Originally posted by Vibrationbaby Vibrationbaby wrote:

Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

They are trying to up it's credibility and stop silly editing. If you need to change something it's best to discuss it first and have be able to give good citations and reference sources for your information - personal memory/knowledge is not enough.

Well, it's about some of the planes I actually flew. So my corrections will be coming from the horse's mouth. Not only do I see a lot of errors on Wikipedia but on tons of other sites. I duno  You can't take everything on the web as gospel. The nature of the beast. I'll give it a try by discussing it.

Yeah, if the deletionists notice that they're not going to let you by without a citation. Whether they do depends on the profile of the article. There have been a rash of articles about Wikipedia because of its birthday, and basically the number of contributers has been declining steadily since 2004 or so because normal people are getting tired of arguing with the circle-jerking editors to keep their contributions up, so there's mostly only the power users left. I've never felt the need to edit Wikipedia except for a few grammar errors that I couldn't bear in the (increasingly rare) unprotected articles. I wish I had gotten an account back in the day for the street cred, though. 
I find it a little amusing that the only time I've ever attempted to add to an article it was removed, yet I am cited as a reference in another entry. Apparently my "word" outside Wikiworld carries more weight within it LOL

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What?


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 08:38
yeah you really have to take the Wiki with a grain of salt so to speak. I sure as hell am not sending them money.


Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 08:52
 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

   I find it a little amusing that the only time I've ever attempted to add to an article it was removed, yet I am cited as a reference in another entry. Apparently my "word" outside Wikiworld carries more weight within it LOL

Yeah, I understand the point of the sourcing policies, but it gets silly very quickly. And I don't know what you added, but it's hard to defend deletions of any remotely useful information when there's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_animals" rel="nofollow - crap like this . I also think their music notability guidelines seem short sighted, although I can't say I've actually had any personal run-ins with it other than our http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26446" rel="nofollow - repeated failure to http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=36639" rel="nofollow - get our http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=70245" rel="nofollow - own page . But I would probably start to bump up against it if I were creating the pages I wanted. 

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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 09:15
I remember a couple of years back when there was some controversy about the Wiki not getting things right when it came to prog.  I suggested that the incorrect things be recorrected.  Of course they discorrected things and at that point it became apparent that we really are the definitive source for prog music information and the Wiki is a bunch of a-holes.   I really don't want to entertain the controversy about controversial additions to this site at this point.  That will go on and on and on as it should. 

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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 09:38
Originally posted by Henry Plainview Henry Plainview wrote:

 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

   I find it a little amusing that the only time I've ever attempted to add to an article it was removed, yet I am cited as a reference in another entry. Apparently my "word" outside Wikiworld carries more weight within it LOL

Yeah, I understand the point of the sourcing policies, but it gets silly very quickly. And I don't know what you added, but it's hard to defend deletions of any remotely useful information when there's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_animals" rel="nofollow - crap like this . I also think their music notability guidelines seem short sighted, although I can't say I've actually had any personal run-ins with it other than our http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26446" rel="nofollow - repeated failure to http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=36639" rel="nofollow - get our http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=70245" rel="nofollow - own page . But I would probably start to bump up against it if I were creating the pages I wanted. 
The ProgArchives is considered as a credible source of reference to Wikiworld, but not worthy of inclusion in it.
Whereas Encyclopedia Metallum (aka Metal Archives) and Rainwave (a lesser known Game music archive) apparently are worthy. The logic and reasoning behind this escapes me, but not enough to care.


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What?


Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 10:08
 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

The ProgArchives is considered as a credible source of reference to Wikiworld, but not worthy of inclusion in it.
Whereas Encyclopedia Metallum (aka Metal Archives) and Rainwave (a lesser known Game music archive) apparently are worthy. The logic and reasoning behind this escapes me, but not enough to care.

It might be because the original pages were probably fan silliness. Personally, I feel like PA shouldn't have an entry (despite my earlier complaints, there is a bit of a deletionist in me), but I do agree that their policy is wildly inconsistent because I think those websites shouldn't have entries either.

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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 10:09
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

The ProgArchives is considered as a credible source of reference to Wikiworld, but not worthy of inclusion in it.
Whereas Encyclopedia Metallum (aka Metal Archives) and Rainwave (a lesser known Game music archive) apparently are worthy. The logic and reasoning behind this escapes me, but not enough to care.

Yeah, I go to the Wiki for some things but leaving us out is glaring omission and gives reason to seriously question the site's credibility and it will be a cold day in hell before they get any money out of me even if I had any to spare.  Ahh, I just went there and Ronald Regan was the featured picture.  That speaks volumes.  The dickweed that makes money off the site is no longer putting his pic on up front fortunately.


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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 06 2011 at 10:20
 
Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

Ahh, I just went there and Ronald Regan was the featured picture.  That speaks volumes.

???

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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 10:19
I don't think I'll even bother correcting them. I sincerelyhope  people don't actually use Wikipedia to obtain knowledge rather than books and what is taught in schools. Or for that matter the internet. The internet was initially developed to send encrypted messages by the US  military & government agencies and then it just got out of control. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was because of the proliferation of  pornography in cyberspace that really started the big internet mess. 

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Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 12:42
Quote I sincerelyhope  people don't actually use Wikipedia to obtain knowledge rather than books and what is taught in schools. Or for that matter the internet.
Books are not inherently more reliable than the internet.
Originally posted by Vibrationbaby Vibrationbaby wrote:

The internet was initially developed to send encrypted messages by the US  military & government agencies and then it just got out of control. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was because of the proliferation of  pornography in cyberspace that really started the big internet mess. 
There was government funding, but the actual first implementations were used for communication between universities, so it was always "out of control". I don't know when the military started using it, but it wasn't in the beginning. Part of the problem was the security, I think: civilians have always been the primary researchers on the internet, and it wasn't until 2000 that US government stopped attempting to suppress the knowledge and implementation of effective cryptography. The general public started to get on the internet through AOL in the early '90s, and I doubt it was all for porn. Porn did have a big impact on the creation of the internet, but that is true for every form of media in history (well, they were on the wrong side for Blu-Ray, but whatever).
 
You can be grumpy if you want, but I hope you don't honestly believe the internet is a net negative.


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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 18:38


Finally, a keyboard just for men!
Thanks to Paul W LOL


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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: thellama73
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 19:04
Originally posted by Henry Plainview Henry Plainview wrote:

And I don't know what you added, but it's hard to defend deletions of any remotely useful information when there's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_animals" rel="nofollow - crap like this .


What are you talking about? That sub-page entitled "List of giant animals in fiction" is the best thing ever!


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Posted By: The Truth
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 20:25
That reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_III:_Life_and_Death" rel="nofollow - this wiki article.
 
That is not the storyline. It does even mention the protagonists half-brother which is a major part as he is saved by him, watches him die, and goes to his mother's house.


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http://blindpoetrecords.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Henry Plainview
Date Posted: February 08 2011 at 00:40
Originally posted by The Truth The Truth wrote:

That reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_III:_Life_and_Death" rel="nofollow - this wiki article.  
That is not the storyline. It does even mention the protagonists half-brother which is a major part as he is saved by him, watches him die, and goes to his mother's house.

If it bothers you, why don't you fix it? For obvious reasons, I doubt there are many people on Wikipedia who care about the exact storyline of a Dear Hunter album. It's even more obvious if you don't bother to fix it either. ;-)

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if you own a sodastream i hate you


Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: February 08 2011 at 15:57
Personally I often use Wikipedia, but seldom as the only reference. This, however, is some of the most stupid bs I’ve ever read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Hagerup" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Hagerup

Whoever wrote this can’t know much about my uncle. Three brothers? They were only two (unless I have a rich uncle in America that I’ve never heard a word about). And what about this:

He has also written many well-known books, mostly for teenagers, but also for older and younger readers.

And how is it possible to write an autobiography about your mother?

Also note the impeccable grammar: his daughters (…) is also authors.


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He say nothing is quite what it seems;
I say nothing is nothing
(Peter Hammill)


Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 09 2011 at 13:25
I rest my case. 

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Posted By: Vompatti
Date Posted: February 09 2011 at 13:29
Oh no, there are errors in the internet?! Shocked



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