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NEVER USE WIKIPEDIA

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by bititid0, Nov 29, 2006.

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  1. Zabb

    Zabb Level I

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    I only use wikipedia for certain things... like Kingdom of Loathing information/help (its roleplaying sorta thingy website lol)
     
  2. asdff

    asdff Level II

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    Nowadays teachers don't accept wikipedia as a source :)
     
  3. manic_one

    manic_one Level I

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    If your teacher doesn't accept wikipedia as a source, you can look at the references of the person who has written the information for wikipedia, and use those as your sources...works a treat ;) If there are no sources, it could mean that the information isn't true. Having said that, have a look at the sources before you cite them -- they might not be true. :)
     
  4. zer0ordi3yo

    zer0ordi3yo Level IV

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    No teacher will accept it on a works cited page, but if you dont need to cite it, I'd sure use it.
     
  5. twxlegend

    twxlegend Level III

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    I agree. It has a wide base of information, and is very useful for work/research, but nowadays teachers just don't accept its citation anymore, at least not when you're in a higher grade.
     
  6. manic_one

    manic_one Level I

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    Really? They won't even accept citation of the citation on wikipedia? I meant that you could use the sites listed at the bottom of the wikipedia article as your citation, as long as you've checked them out for factual accuracy. My teacher accepts this, but it could be because I'm only in year 7.
     
  7. d600

    d600 Level II

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    Mainly geeks add to it so it's pretty good :p
     
  8. Nessa

    Nessa Level I

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    Personally I love wikipedia since the articlse there are so out of the blue and random :eek: THings ive never seen before.. like vampire melons or whatever they were x___X
     
  9. Smelly

    Smelly Level IV

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    lol, i dno what my teacher says about it. i cited it in my A level psych cwk so... im hoping they accept it!"
     
  10. astrospride

    astrospride Level III

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    Wikipedia articles tend to be really accurate, due to the fact that the users who edit it know what they're talking about. In fact, it helped me to get an A on a research paper I had to do for US Hist.
     
  11. Bori

    Bori Newbie

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    hmm

    i think wikipedia is a good site :p
     
  12. chaoz_enigma

    chaoz_enigma Level I

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    Wikipedia

    Wikipedia is not really an encyclopedia, but more of a site with articles. some are accurate while some are not. But usually for normal research it should be fine but for in-depth research it might not be.
     
  13. baldudexx

    baldudexx Level III

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    I agree.

    For universally known and agreed topics it would be good but for topics where there are two sides and people aren't sure it is not reliable. :roll:
     
  14. gaelle

    gaelle Level IV

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    the informations in wikipedia are verified but sometimes four days after the post ! there are many others site better !
     
  15. the_skip

    the_skip Level IV

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    Use multiple sources and combine all of them
     
  16. gaelle

    gaelle Level IV

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    yes skip but this metod is long !
     
  17. chrisw2525

    chrisw2525 Level IV

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    it all depends on what the teacher says, if your not sure ask the teacher if you can use it, but its mainly good for an overview of your topic, and dont just use one site for info, spread out your resources so u know if the info your getting is not true
     
  18. unskillful12

    unskillful12 Level III

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    You have to know how to use Wikipedia.

    1) Never rely on it. It has a lot of info but you never know for sure what is real/made up/whatever.
    2) Double check what you have researched. Make sure it IS real.

    What Wiki is good for:

    1) Preliminary research. Wiki has so much info and A LOT of it is accurate. Not every page is some kid who is bored and wants to mess some page with WWII info on it. The majority of it is people who are interested in something and add what they know which is based on fact or research (or both).
    2) Sources. The best pages on Wiki have a lot of good sources. These are listed at the bottom of th page. You can read Wiki and get all the good info, but even if you can't trust it you can find where this info came from.
     
  19. tghetto

    tghetto Level II

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    I don't discourage using Wikipedia, but I advise not to use it in research papers....but people who change it to misleading information often get banned from editing, I think.
     
  20. Smirnoff

    Smirnoff Level IV

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    With you 100% on this.

    The fact that it is open sourced even increases the accuracy on it. Online articles which are not wiki powered are often outdated and come from limited sources. In wikipedia, if an update happens on the topic, then many users flock to the article and update it the most accurately possible. Because Wiki has such a massive user base, then if any error is ever spotted in an article, a user is bound to fix it up.

    Wiki is so incredibly useful it is scary
     
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