I could have picked any forum for this, so why not here. Most that are familiar with Wikipedia know they accept submissions from just about anyone. So when it comes to the material there, how reliable is it? Has anyone heard or have experiences with bad info. Just curious, I've been looking up stuff there a lot, and suddenly got to wondering just how legitimate it all is. Your help is of course appreciated. :cool:

Wikipedia is the shit. Accept no substitutes. Accept everything within as true unless one has a reason to believe differently, and then, refer to the talk page of the relevant article before running your mouth.

I despise people who believe anything other than the undeniable fact that Wikipedia is one of the top ten accomplishments of mankind, period. Such an enormous body of knowledge about any and every subject has never been made so widely available in a completely free and democratic way. Wiki haters are pathetic Luddite bitches who couldn't ram two neurons together to save their piss-poor lives. End of discussion.

It's a good starting point for most any subject. However, it's not always up-to-date, additionally. sometimes it contains errors I would always research additional papers for further data.
It is undoubtedly a significant accomplishment and whereas Napsterbater may have exaggerated somewhat in his enthusiasm, I basically agree with him.

I use it as a quick verification source for a subject or topic I've already had some need of. If what I read doesn't match my memory, I go elsewhere to double check.

Wikipedia footnotes can be a good place to start researching a subject -- go where the links take you and branch out from there.

I could have picked any forum for this, so why not here. Most that are familiar with Wikipedia know they accept submissions from just about anyone. So when it comes to the material there, how reliable is it? Has anyone heard or have experiences with bad info. Just curious, I've been looking up stuff there a lot, and suddenly got to wondering just how legitimate it all is. Your help is of course appreciated. :cool:
Roughly equal to Encyclopedia Brittanica, I've heard. But it is a research tool, NOT a source.

Thank you all for some sound advice. Nice to know common sense isn't dead.

I generally trust wikipedia for factual information, as inaccuracy of this kind is unlikely to stay long.

For more abstract topics where opinions are involved, I just use it as a reference. So I would say something like "according to wikipedia, [statement A]". Whereas for factual information I would not bother adding "according to wikipedia".

Well it is certainly a cool site. Do a search for where you live and find out interesting things about your town or city, like what famous people live there or lived there. I did a search for my town and it says that the last address for Janis Joplin was here! I had never heard that. The town next to mine has people like Sean Penn and Phil Lesh(Grateful Dead) living there. Well I already knew Sean Penn lived there because I drive by his house all the time. Fairfax a cool little town near me has some interesting stuff too. The Grateful Dead played a baseball game there against the Jefferson Airplane. Wow. It also says Fairfax is like Mayberry on Acid! There is a video on youtube called Mayberry on Acid that is about Fairfax.

. ...Well I already knew Sean Penn lived there because I drive by his house all the time...

And you haven't egged and/or TP'ed it yet?

And yes, Wiki is amazing. As people have stated before, it's a great starting point for research on just about anything.

[quote=Phyrex]And you haven't egged and/or TP'ed it yet?

No I have not egged his house or have any plans on doing so. But then I don't hate him like you do. And I don't know what you mean by TP'ed. ?

I could have picked any forum for this, so why not here. Most that are familiar with Wikipedia know they accept submissions from just about anyone. So when it comes to the material there, how reliable is it? Has anyone heard or have experiences with bad info. Just curious, I've been looking up stuff there a lot, and suddenly got to wondering just how legitimate it all is. Your help is of course appreciated. :cool:
I don't know how legitimate it is, but I've been looking stuff up for school on there for a while now, and nobody has challenged it. So it seems to be pretty legitimate for the most part, though there are always a few subjects where editor bias comes into play.

[quote=Phyrex]And you haven't egged and/or TP'ed it yet?

No I have not egged his house or have any plans on doing so. But then I don't hate him like you do. And I don't know what you mean by TP'ed. ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_papering

See, here is an example of how amazing Wikipedia is, lol.

Who said I hated him anyways? Maybe I just don't care for his movies much, hmmmm? Doesn't mean I gotta hate him.

Thank you all for some sound advice. Nice to know common sense isn't dead.
What the hell kind of advice did you expect?

[quote=afinertouch5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_papering

See, here is an example of how amazing Wikipedia is, lol.

Who said I hated him anyways? Maybe I just don't care for his movies much, hmmmm? Doesn't mean I gotta hate him. You didnt like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"?

[quote=afinertouch5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_papering

See, here is an example of how amazing Wikipedia is, lol.

Who said I hated him anyways? Maybe I just don't care for his movies much, hmmmm? Doesn't mean I gotta hate him. Ok, well I just thought if you wanted to egg his house or TP it that you disliked him at least. So you think he deserves to get his house egged because you don't care for his movies. And which movies of his have you seen? But I agree with you it is a great site!

[quote=Phyrex] You didnt like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"? I liked that movie and also I liked Falcon and the Snowman. And of course Mystic River was great too!

I was being sarcastic lol, sorry. I don't like Sean Penn, so yeah. However Fast Times is an awesome movie.

If you haven't, you should read the wikipedia articles on wikipedia itself and on Encyclopedia Britannica. It's fascinating.