NY Times Magazine Takes A Neutral Point Of View On Wikipedia
from the not-so-bad dept
Over the years, there have been tons of articles about Wikipedia -- some more ridiculous than others. The haters of Wikipedia are pretty common, though, as you read what they have to say it often becomes clear that they don't actually understand Wikipedia and believe it's something it's not. However, the NY Times Magazine this past weekend has a more interesting -- and, frankly, "neutral" -- article on Wikipedia that looks more at the people who keep Wikipedia going as well as Wikipedia's impact on news coverage. It notes that Wikipedia is often much better than offshoot Wikinews when it comes to keeping up with breaking news. However, what's most interesting is hearing the various quotes from the various volunteers who keep Wikipedia going. Despite what you may have read from various Wikipedia critics, the folks who devote so much time to Wikipedia take it, and its principles of neutrality, incredibly seriously. While there may be nothing really new in the article, it's one of the first that I've seen that gives a more reasonable picture of how Wikipedia's biggest supporters view the site -- and it works quite well as a response to people who insist that Wikipedia couldn't possibly be trustworthy (or that it somehow is an affront to "experts" -- when that's not the case at all).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Agreed
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sources
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Everybody chill
T.J.'s trust in Wikipedia as a source of "credibility" is heartwarming but strikes me as odd. To say that Wikipedia constantly does anything is to err, because there is no entity called Wikipedia; it's just a grab bag of John Q. Publics who feel like editing at the time. T.J. is quite obviously interesting in fighting the good fight, which is really cute and all, but the sad irony is that by not listing the "major media corporation 'news' sites" that fail to live up to his journalistic standards, he's made the same mistake he's so righteously wailing about. All it takes is one ne'er-do-well to delete a link, and bam -- so much for constantly linking its sources, T.J.
I think that from an academic standpoint Wikipedia was engineered to be used precisely the way in which I and Charlie Potatoes use it, which is ground zero for some vital information and a sort of launchpad into more detailed (and acceptable) sources. As long as the editors of a Wiki article provide citations of journal articles or books or encyclopedias, who really needs to cite Wikipedia? The romance, naturally, of a 3-page bibliography is all but ruined with but one MLA-formatted hat-tip to ole Wiki.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wikiwonder
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It works...kinda
As ACM stated, Wikipedia makes a great basis to start from, if you do not have a good idea on a topic. Though a few articles may be fouled by missing citations, and misinformation. In large part, wiki is good for a general idea. Much like spark notes is to middle schoolers and high schoolers. Though they dont use it as a starting point.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wiki hate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wiki is all about corrections
simple as that. There should be a GPL. You can't use wiki if you don't fix the errors :p
Thats your job as a wiki user
[ link to this | view in thread ]
tax troubles
[ link to this | view in thread ]