[Web4lib] Problems with Wikipedia

[Mezynski, Andrzej]

Paul,

you sound like my apartment manager when I report a plumbing problem :-)
(did you fix it, well why not?)
But seriously, as an "end user" I can deal with that, but as an academic
librarian I must consider warning students about the possibility of
encountering strange and/or misleading and/or offensive "data" on
Wikipedia.
One "insensitive" sentence is easy to detect but what about  ... e.g.
politicians removing their "love rap-sheets"?  Or ethnic groups adding
"glorious facts" to their history? 
I don't say " Wikipedia sucks" (as you did ;-), but I share my
experience(s), idea(s) and concern(s) with others, that's why we joined
this forum, right?

Andrzej Mezynski



-----Original Message-----
From: Sutherland, Paul [mailto:Paul.Sutherland at ccc.govt.nz] 
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 12:35 PM
To: Mezynski, Andrzej; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Problems with Wikipedia

Why did you not just remove that text on seeing it - it would have taken
less time than grumbling to the list - and you would have more insight
into how wikipedia and it community works.


However you wouldnt have recived a pointer to the good article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Replies_to_common_objections

Another thing to consider is how we help our customers (and colleagues)
to understand wikipedia and its ilk - and get over the Wikipedia sucks
feelings.

I think it is always worth replying to the antis - by saying - but did
you fix it, well why not?

I like "Should I Cite Wikipedia? Probably not." 
http://www.williams.edu/library/citing/wikipedia.php 
as a good example of advice in one context

/paul



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