Poll: Wikipedia

[Hateren47]

You hear it everywhere. "Wikipedia can be edited by any one", your teacher will tell you Wikipedia is not source material etc. But how accurate do you think Wikipedia is?

I would put myself in the second category. I believe Wikipedia is edited by people who care enough to be critical with scientific theories, history books and other source materials. How about you?

 

[Engarde]

I believe it is rather accurate, if a bit subjective. There seem to be more people fixing than breaking. Not to mention I have never seen a subtle change to ruin it....just the huge obvious nonsense ones.

 

[Hosker]

I have seen anything that is inaccurate on there, i don't think so anyway

 

[Woodsey]

There was a study that found it to be only about 8% less accurate than the Encyclopedia Britannica.[footnote]Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia[/footnote]

 

[Thunderhorse31]

If you're looking up historical events or mathematical principles, I'd say it's generally trustworthy.

If you're researching a person's political view or religious principles, I'd suggest being much more careful about trusting the info, being more subjective.

If you're looking up joke entries like Tosh.O, everything on there is 100% accurate, guaranteed.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

I know how inaccurate it has the potential to be, but somehow I believe it all the time.
Probably just because I'm lazy...

 

[Verlander]

The polls a bit skewed, there should be a 70% or something. Wikipedia is about as accurate as any of the internet

 

[oppp7]

If it's citationed it's as good as any non-Wikipedia site, which is usually ok by academic standards.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I consider Wikipedia a good baseline for knowing what somebody means when they talk about disestablishmentarianism (or anything else for that matter). For specific facts, I consider it best to go to websites such as Britannica and the like.

 

[Queen Michael]

98% accurate. I have, myself, corrected some obvious troller inaccuracues. What one must remember is that when calculating the amount of errors on Wikipedia one will find two kinds of errors: The factual error that goes like this: "George Washington was born in 1557" and the troll error that goes like this: "Dan Brown sold his soul to the devil to earn some money" (actual error).

 

[Keepitclean]

I have found the facts to be accurate but in some articales they are spun in a way which is misleading. Generally though I love Wikipedia. I can understand why teachers say it isn't a good information source but in the cases where teachers have said that it has been for things that an encyclopedia wouldn't be a good information source.

 

[Hateren47]

The polls a bit skewed, there should be a 70% or something. Wikipedia is about as accurate as any of the internet

Yeah I realise that and I hope you picked the "98%" or "other" option.

 

[dex-dex]

IT can be edited by anyone but over time other people will come along who know more about a topic and change it.
wikipedia is like the sketchy old dude in your neighbourhood who knows a little about everything.

also there are references so you know you can go to the original facts.

 

[Queen Michael]

I have found the facts to be accurate but in some articales they are spun in a way which is misleading. Generally though I love Wikipedia. I can understand why teachers say it isn't a good information source but in the cases where teachers have said that it has been for things that an encyclopedia wouldn't be a good information source.

I think the reason a lot of schools don't allow Wikipedia as a source is the way a lot of students would be able to say "But Mickey Mouse was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln! It said so on Wikipedia! I added it myself!" Anybody could claim anything in an essay and just add it to Wikipedia to have a legitimate source.

 

[hecticpicnic]

mostly true, but i can get some things wrong

 

[imaloony]

98%. If you go on Wikipedia and edit an article to be wrong, keep an eye on it. It'll be fixed by someone really quickly. Nearly everything is proved with a source, and a lot of important pages are locked to anyone screwing with them.

 

[Alex Cowan]

I was researching a Biology paper, and apparently Emphysema "makes ur dick go blue".

Apart from that I've had no real problems with it, so I'm going for 98%