Wikipedia as a Source

United States
November 8, 2006 6:51am CST
I see Wikiepedia cited here a lot to justify positions or prove facts. Here is the truth about Wikipedia: 1. The owners say not to cite it as authoritative. They know it is not a good source, just a fun source. 2. It is not a good source because there is no quality control. ANYONE at all can post anything they want in Wikipedia, whether it is true or not. Until someone points it out to the editors as wrong, it stays. A guy posted -- as a joke -- that some guy was investigated for involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This was totally untrue. The guy he posted about had serious adverse consequences. He had to threaten a lawsuit to get it taken down. Political campaigns post negative stuff about their oppositiion hoping to influence the election. All kinds of bad and inaccurate stuff gets posted there all the time. Do not use Wikipedia as a source, unless you can verify the information elsewhere. And for, god sakes, never cite it in a school paper.
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