Lets face it!! Wikipedia is a great source, there's virtually nothing that you can't find there, from the F-word to Jimi Hendrix to the geekiest subject imaginable! you can find very useful links
the whole idea is that you can add , edit , delete , whatever you don't like and write any article that you might find "right" !! it's up to the public to edit it,the author's identity remains unkown.. not a bad idea at all!!
the internet is becoming an "open-source" hub , from youtube, to ultimate guitar and of course, wikipedia, everybody and anybody can be an artist, journalist, researcher, movie star, porn star, director and the list goes, you can post whatever you want and express whatever you want , no matter how unusual " and in many times twisted" your idea is!!
Wikipedia " as mentioned in wikipedia.com .. what an irony!" is:
" a multilingual, Web-based, Free content Encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers; its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Web site. The name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia."
According to wikipedia there are more than 75000 active contributors, working on more than 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages!
and more than 1,600,000 articles in English only!!! that's a lot. no other encyclopedia gets even close to that!
also on wikipedia.com:
"Wikipedia's reliability and accuracy have been questioned. The site has also been criticised for its susceptibility to vandalism, uneven quality, systemic bias and inconsistencies, and for favouring consensus over credentials in its editorial process. Wikipedia's content policies and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns. Two scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived and that Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as other online encyclopedias."
The authors names are unknown, you have no idea about their academic background or affiliation, and anybody can edit anything therefore vandalism is a big concern, that and many other concerns affect wikipedia's credibility
if we take Encyclopedia Britannica, a prestigious source , been around for 239 years!!! yeah it's contributors and board of directors is about 4400, nothing compared to wiki's size! but in this case size doesn't matter!!! take a look at their editorial board of directors: Nobel laureates , university presidents, university professors! , but it's not free! and in costs a lot, anyway, after all nothing is perfect , even britannica has it's flaws , but it's way more credible!!!!
Right now the online version of britannica is available for students, for about 70$ a year you can get access to 17,511 articles , learning activites and step by step research guides!
in my own opinion wikipedia is a great source if you want to start researching about any subject! it can give you a good guideline for what and where to look, the contents are well organized , with links to websites and papers to get more info , but if you want your paper to be more convincing!! don't depend on wiki alone!
references :
wikipedia.com
britannica.com
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