Wikipedia?
May. 10th, 2006 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteSo this morning I listened to the daily computer tips feature on the radio by a woman named Kim Kommando. She's usually fairly smart about computers and the Net. Today, however, she told people to never, ever use Wikipedia. After all, if anyone can post anything there, it's totally unreliable.
Funny thing is, while I agree that you have to be really careful with such sites, I also find it to be a very good database of fannish information. Missed everything DC Comics published last year? It's all there, in succinct and accurate (and often unbiased) form. Have a question about minor Star Wars characters? it's there, or at the Star Wars spinoff site, Wookieepedia. And why is this so? Because anyone can post there, or correct anything there. And because when it comes to fannish matters (or any pop culture matters), WE are the experts. And we take this seriously.
Oh, and to be honest, I have used Wikipedia (not exclusively) to look up work-related information such as birthd dates and spellings for artists. As one reference tool in a toolbox of many, it's pretty good.
I'm curious who else uses Wikipedia, and what for. And who else has actually posted or editied an article there. (Look for the article on Firestorm the Nuclear Man. I wrote the original version of it shortly before the new series started. I take great pride in it.)
If you don't use Wikipedia, is it because you don't trust it? And if you don't use it, what do you use in lieu of an old-fashioned paper encyclopedia?
Funny thing is, while I agree that you have to be really careful with such sites, I also find it to be a very good database of fannish information. Missed everything DC Comics published last year? It's all there, in succinct and accurate (and often unbiased) form. Have a question about minor Star Wars characters? it's there, or at the Star Wars spinoff site, Wookieepedia. And why is this so? Because anyone can post there, or correct anything there. And because when it comes to fannish matters (or any pop culture matters), WE are the experts. And we take this seriously.
Oh, and to be honest, I have used Wikipedia (not exclusively) to look up work-related information such as birthd dates and spellings for artists. As one reference tool in a toolbox of many, it's pretty good.
I'm curious who else uses Wikipedia, and what for. And who else has actually posted or editied an article there. (Look for the article on Firestorm the Nuclear Man. I wrote the original version of it shortly before the new series started. I take great pride in it.)
If you don't use Wikipedia, is it because you don't trust it? And if you don't use it, what do you use in lieu of an old-fashioned paper encyclopedia?
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Date: May. 10th, 2006 04:11 pm (UTC)I Love Wikipeida. I agree with Tom - mundane stuff. Good to look up TV and movies, plants and animals, same thing I'd use a normal encyclopedia for, but at the same time you can reference internet and non-internet pop culture! How else would I have learned to define the word "chav". How else would I describe the whole "O RLY?" thing to my in-laws.