is wikipedia a good place to read and get accurate information?

Question by : is wikipedia a good place to read and get accurate information?
people say anyone can write on wikipedia and get it published? is that true? then whats the point of it? if the sources are there that means its accurate?

Best answer:

Answer by Jessie
yes you get accurate information on wikipedia . its true that anyone can edit but there are lot of moderators who check for correctness of the info added.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

accurate, good, Information, place, read, wikipedia

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This entry was posted by Hot4u on December 27, 2010 at 12:55 pm, and is filed under Top Sites. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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Comments (8)

#1 written by cya
about 1 year ago

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in general yes
you can use what wikipedia used in the references at the end of each article if they tell you DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA lol that’s what i did and it’s 100% accurate.

you can edit most pages
but if you add false info it will be deleted in a few minutes or even seconds
and your IP will be banned for months

also there are a lot of locked pages on wikipedia in which no one can edit except certified users.
#2 written by The Video Game
about 1 year ago

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Wikipedia has a great source of information for everyone. Everyone and anyone can edit it, but moderators make sure that whatever is edited is edited for a good cause.

People who vandalize (like erasing the pages and everything) will have their I.P traced and quite possibly banned.

Feel free to use Wikipedia, I use it all the time.
#3 written by Kohs Knows
about 1 year ago

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People who blindly trust what they read on Wikipedia — sourced or unsourced — are fools.

Here is a succinct blog article that describes why you just can’t trust what you read on Wikipedia, even if the article is “stable”, and even if it is “sourced”.

Akahele:
http://akahele.org/2009/07/where-in-the-world-was-mike-ilitch/
#4 written by Carter_k1
about 1 year ago

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No, not really since any information could have a biased towards the writers beliefs etc. and therefore not be impartial. Though references are cited, I doubt the moderators have loads of time on their hands to check every update to each page and verify the information. Best source of information is your local library using their reference books; I know my library has up to date reference books etc. if I need information I go in the library and read, sitting at home on the internet looking for accurate information is like looking for a needle in the haystack; as you do need to verify the sources etc.
#5 written by Fred Bauder
about 1 year ago

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The information on Wikipedia comes from reliable sources.
#6 written by Brandon
about 1 year ago

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No. Nooo, nooooooooo noooo noooooooo!

Yes, anyone can write on Wikipedia, and it gets published instantly. (It can also get deleted instantly, but deletion doesn’t always happen to content that deserves it).

The point is supposed to be that the crowd as a whole knows the correct information. In actual practice, however, Wikipedia content is tightly controlled by a small group of people whose only real field of expertise is Wikipedia itself.

You can put plausible-looking sources on anything. But you’re supposed to look at those sources yourself, because the cited sources might actually have nothing to do whatsoever with the article.

As an exercise, doublecheck MY sources for this answer.
#7 written by John
about 1 year ago

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Wikipedia is holy accurate, an excellent place to read and get accurate information. Jimbo be praised!
#8 written by Robert S
about 1 year ago

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Yeah, if you don’t mind verifying each little bit you read in it for yourself (that means reading each cited source, if any, yourself, front to back; this could possibly also include traveling to various places, carrying out complicated computations, conducting experiments).

Those are things an editor at a newspaper, journal or traditional encyclopedia would take care of, and their job depends on it. On Wikipedia, you’re on your own.

It’s true “anyone can write on Wikipedia and get it published.” Blatantly obvious lies will probably get deleted within minutes or hours. Subtler lies can stay for months, or even get featured on Wikipedia’s front page.

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