Wikipedia - how much do you use it?
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Category: Topics not related to music
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=44477
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Topic: Wikipedia - how much do you use it?
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Wikipedia - how much do you use it?
Date Posted: December 16 2007 at 14:24
| Do you depend on Wikipedia? Do you trust it? Do you contribute? |
Replies:
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: December 16 2007 at 14:38
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I must admit I use it quite a lot for factual information, such as dates of birth and death of writers, artists and historical characters, or details about events or places. If I need something a bit more in-depth, I always check the info I found on Wikipedia against other sources, because I know how it works, and that it can be unreliable. As to contributing, I only did for a very short time, and in a very limited context - the Italian entry about JRR Tolkien. However, I lost interest very soon, and had other things to occupy my time. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 14:47
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I personally thank Wikipedia for my growing knowledge in music, and in everything else a bit. I just don't want to say "if Wikipedia weren't, I..." The whole world would be different, no doubt... I depended on Wikipedia almost 100% until the day I became a member of PA. Actually, PA tremendously decreased my interest on Wikipedia, both on editing and reading. I was really an active member there, but PA did it's effect...   But again, if Wikipedia weren't..... (Whoopss!!!  ) |
Posted By: Mikerinos
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 14:53
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A few times a day on average probably. It's misleading though, people act like you can add or edit anything in the articles on wikipedia but I believe the revisions need to be passed by moderator-like people before (correct me if I'm wrong...). I mean I'm sure faulty stuff gets passed but probably not as often as the librarians at my school say.. ------------- 
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Posted By: Peter
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:00
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Very rarely -- I just Google any given topic, and (depending on the nature of the subject) tend to then click on links to government, university or other such "reputable" sources.
Plus, I already know almost everything, anyway....  ------------- "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:18
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Of course it's entirely dependent on what you're looking up. Good for the non-controversial stuff.
------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: darkmatter
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:22
| I use it somewhat frequently, but I'd never use it for a source for a project or report, just for random stuff. |
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:29
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. ------------- |
Posted By: ClassicRocker
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:32
You're right. Apparently there are people checking new and revised articles round-the-clock. And besides, people don't need Wikipedia to mess up topics and write goofy articles: that's what Uncyclopedia is for! ( http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ) ------------- 
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Bluesaga wrote:Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 15:40
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. ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: N Ellingworth
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 17:09
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I use it to get a general view of what I'm researching and then find specialist sites to get more in depth knowledge, interestingly I recently discovered that my great grandfather has an entry on wikipedia detailing how he won his George Cross |
Posted By: laplace
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 17:12
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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
------------- FREEDOM OF SPEECH GO TO HELL |
Posted By: ProgBagel
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 17:36
| Everyday...one of the most useful things on the internet. Even though it is inaccurate at times. |
Posted By: Philéas
Date Posted: December 26 2007 at 23:08
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I use it a lot, but I'm not really dependent on it. |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 12:16
| Quite alot, both for schoolwork and for fun. |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 12:52
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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:
 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. -------------   
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Posted By: Barla
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 13:02
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I use it a lot for school, and many of the information is good, but you know, there always are mistakes. It's incredible the amount of info they have!
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Barla/?chartstyle=LastfmMyspace">  
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Posted By: JJLehto
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 13:53
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Alot.
I don't care what everyone says...I still think it's a great source.
I mainly use it for factual info as well, but also as a way to get to other more "scholarly" sources.
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Posted By: stonebeard
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 14:02
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I use it a lot. In high school, it eventually got banned by most teachers, but I only had to do 1 or 2 research projects a year, so by that time it didn't even effect me really. My WW2 History teacher didn't care if we used it or not, and for a variety of other reasons, mostly because I write papers very well, I used only wikipedia and maybe 1 or 2 other sources to write a few research papers. The class was set up like a college class in high school, and since I wasn't getting college credit for the difficulty of the coursework, my using wikipedia reflects my contempt. In college, I haven't had to write a research paper yet. So, I use wikipedia if I'm curious about something.
------------- http://soundcloud.com/drewagler" rel="nofollow - My soundcloud. Please give feedback if you want! |
Posted By: bhikkhu
Date Posted: December 27 2007 at 14:14
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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. ------------- a.k.a. H.T. http://riekels.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow - http://riekels.wordpress.com |
Posted By: Era V.
Date Posted: December 28 2007 at 09:19
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I adore wikipedia. I just spend hours on it reading country profiles, city profiles, historical figure profiles etc.
I'd never use it for a project or anything but then, since I've been out of study of anything except music for about 3 years now, I'd never need to either. Absolutely one of the best additions to the internet ever.
If you don't accept the risk of it being slightly inaccurate and double check aspects of a subject that seem pertinent then that's just being stupid...obviously, given the nature of its construct.
But then again, encyclopedias have been wildly inaccurate for decades...as they can only rely on information correct at time of printing ;)
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Posted By: progaeopteryx
Date Posted: December 28 2007 at 12:38
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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. |
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: December 28 2007 at 19:22
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What happened to The Encyclopedia Britannica ? What happened to slide rules ? What happenned to turntables ? What happened to dial phones ? I`m also worried about the baggage retrieval system they have at Heathrow ? Do they have that on Wikopedia ? ------------- |
Posted By: Gamemako
Date Posted: December 30 2007 at 18:35
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I am a user, and I edit quite a bit. Always have.
------------- Hail Eris! 
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Posted By: darren
Date Posted: December 30 2007 at 21:24
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Hate wikipedia.
I'm in the middle of a political commotion (I'm not going to get into it here or give details). It's an issue that requires accurate biology. I hate how people quote wikipedia like it's some kind of reliable source. I find wikipedia has many errors and a LOT of missing info.
------------- "they locked up a man who wanted to rule the world. the fools they locked up the wrong man." - Leonard Cohen |
Posted By: ita_prog_fan
Date Posted: December 31 2007 at 05:09
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I use it more than Google... you can find certain infos more easily !
I wrote about 10 articles in Italian and 1 in English (mostly about 19th century war vessels)
You have to be carefull, of course, many inaccurate statements in there, but can you tell me where you don't find inaccurate information ?
.
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Posted By: cookieacquired
Date Posted: December 31 2007 at 11:54
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Yes Wikipedia is useful, though should be taken with a grain of salt. Much good music and other bits of info has been learned off the site------------- 
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