Wikipedia - how much do you use it?

I am a user, and I edit quite a bit. Always have.

I think Wikipedia is just a fabulous creation. I contribute from time to time, mostly adding to those stubs in topics I'm well versed in, but sometimes just adding hyperlinks to terms in articles that were missing them.

As for the inaccuracies, Wikipedia is improving in that area, so much so that an article in Nature, an international weekly journal of science, claimed that Wikipedia comes close to the Encyclopaedia Britannica in terms of accuracy for its science entries. Britannica of course refuted it, and later Nature issued a rebuttal. That was back in December 2005, and I haven't heard anything about it since.

As for other categories, I'm sure there are mistakes. Encyclopedias have always been known to have mistakes, even those written by experts in their fields. I think the major point to be taken from this inaccuracy issue is that if you are an expert in your field, then fix the inaccuracy. Make Wikipedia better. Add reliable reference sources to the articles. Is that really so hard to do rather than complaining about it?

As for hard core research, people who are familiar with their fields should know the appropriate resources for checking stuff out. If they don't know it now, hopefully they will understand what proper context encyclopedias are supposed to fill.

If I get a hit during a search, I will check out the entry. I don't use the information they provide. I just use it to guide me to other sources.

Alot.

I use it to look up deceased Baseball and/or American Football and/or Basketball and/or NFL (former-) coaches/players in the "Recent deaths" section. 

Let's see... this month alone:

• Jack Lamabe, 71, American Major League Baseball pitcher. [45]
• Tommy Byrne, 87, American baseball player. [53]
• Jim Holstein, 77, American basketball player (Minneapolis Lakers). [72]
• Tadayuki Inoue, 72, Japanese professional baseball player (Nish*tetsu Lions) and umpire, heart attack. [89] (Japanese)
• Ikuo Shimano, 63, Japanese professional baseball player and coach, stomach cancer. [94] (Japanese)
• Yu Hanai, 75, Japanese professional baseball player (Nish*tetsu Lions), sepsis. [99] (Japanese)
• Clarence Marshall, 82, American Major League Baseball pitcher (New York Yankees). [101]
• George Morris, 76, American football player (Georgia Tech, San Francisco 49ers), apparent heart attack. [138]
• George Bednar, 65, American NFL player and Harvey Wallbanger cocktail promoter. [162]

I've never heard of any of them...

Actually, I do have an account on there, but it's been a while since I've edited an entry on there.



Edited by Geck0 - December 27 2007 at 12:59

I use it a lot, but I'm not really dependent on it.

wikipedia's great for the sort of things I'm interested in - nerdy or arty rubbish that no-one hates enough to deface. not so much for political or national info ;P

Aeternus wrote: Do you depend on Wikipedia? Do you trust it? Do you contribute?

I've banned its use as a reference for coursework, research projects in our undergraduate and post-graduate  programmes - just too unreliable, worse ,wrong too many times to be a safe reference.

After seeing so many errors I don`t even bother. In fact I don`t use the internet for a source of information. There`s books and libraries for that. It`s more of an entertainment thing for me. I even joined Queen Elizabeth`s Royal Channel on youtube.