There is a huge Wikipedia frontier of articles.
"Wikipedia is Accurate" BustedTees Shirt
A friend asked me what was wikiality about “Six Apart, Ltd. the world’s largest blogging company”. Is it that a reference is needed? That the statement is vague? That the article appears to be wholly autobiographical?
Yes, probably all those things and maybe some others.
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia with open contribution. And it seems to be the reference of choice for bloggers. Around 100 of my articles link to Wikipedia.
Although, I continue to use Wikipedia as a reference. I use it for only for general orientation. Few articles I read there don’t have some problem with them. Wikiality represents “A reality where, if enough people agree with a notion, it becomes the truth.” and Stephen Colbert used it to triple the population of elephants.
You don’t need Steven Colbert to excite his viewers into changing articles about elephants to create wikiality and improve Wikipedia’s “truthiness”.
There is a huge Wikipedia frontier of articles. It includes almost 2.5 million articles, and although many meet encyclopedic standards, it’s safe to say most of its articles to do not.
After a few mediocre experiences with the Wikipedia Clergy, I’ve decided it would be fun and still possibly useful to document my encounters with wikiality here.
Do you have any wikiality experiences to share?
I was at a dinner party once and an argument ensued between two women. We were drinking wine for a couple hours and I must admit it was not the greatest of debates. One was arguing the age of some actress and the other claimed that she was off by ten years. The one arguing the younger age cited Wikipedia as her reference, the other IMDB. Obviously the general consensus was that the actress or the actress’s agent had created a Wikiality regarding her age. It was a few years ago, and I cannot remember who the actress was, but it reminded me of sales people and how some that I work with are willing to spew anything they hear third or fourth hand as fact if it will help change a mind.
Great stuff and I am really glad I found your site.
Having watched some wikipedia editing battles it is a place I am reluctant to go near, even on a page I know that has blatantly false information.
Thought: Has an article about them been corrected truthfully by a company/person and they have been credited for such? Or would such edits be seen as false simply because the words came from the subject?
Some schools won’t allow their students to use wikipedia because the information is so easily changeable. However, I believe that wikipedia is an excellent source for accurate information. Sure things can be changed here and there, but they are most often corrected on a more vigorous scale than other sources of information. I would claim that wikipedia is about as accurate as any other source. Have you seen Conservapedia? It’s for people who feel wikipedia is too liberal. It’s a hoot!