do you think most information on wikipedia are fake.
By adex19
@adex19 (114)
Malaysia
June 25, 2011 5:22am CST
I had read so make article on wikipedia about a lot of thing. most especial about movie actor and actress. then i start to think, most of this actor have not head of wikipedia before.if a user can writer information about a person he/she has never come in contact with. how good is that sources of information.
6 responses
@Angelee_27 (3460)
• United States
25 Jun 11
Hi adex19,
I don't think that everything that is posted on Wikipedia is fake, however, I do think that Wikipedia is an unreliable source for information, for the simple fact that anyone can post whatever they like on there, true or not.
@Angelee_27 (3460)
• United States
27 Jun 11
You're most certainly welcome adex19! ;)
I am also glad schools around here discourage the use of Wikipedia. It's really not a reliable source of information, and before you believe something that you've read on there... you should first check elsewhere as well to confirm.
@adex19 (114)
• Malaysia
26 Jun 11
thanks you fro your comment but how could they know if a particular information is fake or now. every day alot of people go there to find information and edit also. it only when another user get there and find other that the information is not true then that is when he can report the information or make change to the information also so the process just continue
@JohnRok1 (2051)
•
27 Jun 11
I have posted edits in Wikipedia myself, and two or three have been deleted by the Wikipedia team for lack of corroboration. You can be sure that if something is in Wikipedia it has either been published elsewhere or a source of verification has been cited. That does not mean that everything there is accurate, but it couldn't be less accurate than Professor William Robertson Smith's articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica were!
@jomzdsign (184)
• India
16 Jul 11
they are taking it from other sites...their may b errors..but u should take into mind the huge amount of free information we r getting from this site...
@skizzer (36)
• Denmark
18 Apr 12
I want to say that my humble opinion is that Wikipedia is a great source of information.
I can understand the people who say "but anyone can edit content", but at the end of the day, you can verify the information for yourself if it is true. There are usually cited sources for the essential information in Wikipedia articles, and if there is not, YOU have to have the ability of being critical of that information.
In other words, use Wikipedia with your own responsibility and be aware that there is the possibility that there can be found false information. But can't there be false information in books, too? I think it's an appeal to authority to just simply say "Wikipedia is not good enough for school assignments; you must use books as sources instead". If there is a book written on some subject, can we be 100 % sure that this book contains true information? NO, in my opinion.
If you are skeptical of claims or information you have found on Wikipedia, simply see if there are any sources cited. If there are, try to investigate these sources further. Thereby you can assess whether or not the information is to be trusted.
With all this said, I do not use wikipedia myself for any school assignments simply because I am not allowed to. But I DO read articles on wikipedia if there are topics I need information on. If I need some of this information in my assignments, I simply find other sources that contain the same information as Wikipedia and cite these instead.
So, my answer is: No, I do not think most information on wikipedia is fake. I think it's a great site and a great purpose it's serving.
