Thursday, February 19, 2009

Wikipedia as public restroom?

I often use Wikipedia.

Mostly, I'm happy with the results. Sometimes, not so much.

Now I know why:
"The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him."
The Faith-Based Encyclopedia by Robert McHenry

3 comments:

  1. Don't forget that great scholars, for a loooonnnnggg time, said the world was flat. Me thinks that McHenry may be one of 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am sure McHenry agrees the world is not flat... so I'm not sure what argument you are making. Are you saying that Wikipedia articles should be trusted? Are you saying that McHenry is wrong, that anyone reading any Wikipedia article DOES know who wrote and edited the article? That someone could quote Wikipedia in a courtroom and have that accepted as expert testimony?

    That the wisdom of crowds is infallible?

    Or are you simply expressing the anti-expert bias that is so much a part of the Wikipedia culture?

    ReplyDelete
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