Wikipedia - a trustworthy source of knowledge?

I certainly use Wikipedia but I don't depend on it for resource - I look around other sites too. Sometimes Wikipedia doesn't have the information I want, but it is still very useful!

I LOVE WIKIPIDIA i never had missleading info and i like the fact that peoplecan edit it since ....ISNT THAT WUT THE INTERNET IS PEOPLE SHARING INFO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think generally the information on Wikipedia is correct. However, as a general rule, if all i'm looking for is general knowledge for myself then I'll use it, but if I have to cite my sources in a paper or essay for school then I find the information elsewhere.

its actually incredibly likely that you'll get a biased opinion. just recently it was released that wikipedia can track who edits websites, and the major contributors are often corporations who want their pages to read favorably.

Wikipedia is a great resource, but never an actual source. The problem with wikipedia is that while 99% of the information you read there is good, you could happen to source an article there right after some retard spent three hours rewriting it with the completely wrong information. By the way, there is a bias there, just not apparent to thos who aren't familiar with the community. If you have a research project, wiki[edia is a great place to start, do some research on wikipedia to find some basic information, then use the sources listed at the bottom of the articles you;re using to find the actual facts that you are looking for

Wikipedia isn't a good final source for such research, for several reasons: (1) It isn't permanent. This is actually a problem with citing most of the content on the 'net, with some notable exceptions (for example, major newspapers have permanent links to articles that will always be the same as those that were in the printed page). A printed encyclopedia can always be checked to verify it says what you claimed, unlike Wikipedia, which may have been corrected or updated. (2) It is secondary. The people who create and edit Wikipedia are (ideally) supposed to base their words on more authoritative sources, from academic articles to verifiable newspaper articles. This frequently doesn't happen -- for example, I've help document my own neighborhood in San Francisco, as well as some other topics, without 'sources' -- but for important or controversial points, there should be a footnote that leads you to another authority. Those footnotes should be your key to research. Use Wikipedia to learn the basics about a topic, then examine the sources listed at the bottom and follow-up. (People do the same thing with professional academic journals.) Of course, because anyone can edit Wikipedia, there is a tiny, tiny, tiny possibility that you'll read an article that had bogus information. (You could click 'Random Article' for a long time before you found such an error, though. Assuming you had the patience). But *all* pages have people that 'watch' them looking at what has been changed (there are volunteer administrators that do this even for pages that no one else wants to watch), and take pride in fixing errors. Vandalism happens all the time, but keep in mind how huge Wikipedia is: with "over 2,039,895 articles comprising of over 885,142,350 words" the amount of good stuff vastly outweighs the bad stuff. The best test is your own commonsense. Go to a few articles in Wikipedia about something that you already know about, and see how accurate it is. And if it isn't accurate, change it. ---------- I've added some of the interesting articles to the links below. Most from the New York Times (I just happen to read the NYTimes, and can recommend it, but if you are really curious you should look up your own sources.) They are interesting, and should help you understand Wikipedia's culture, and why and how it is accurate, and sometimes inaccurate. Finally, if you happen to be a high school student, make sure you read the last article. You'll see why.

I love Wikipedia too. I think it is mostly accurate, but if you are using it for an assignment I would definitely check up on the facts presented in it just to be sure since it is not completely accurate.

Wikipedia is good for everyday knowledge because I figure that for every person who types in something wrong, someone is going on that will correct it. However if your doing academic writing you need a good source...Peer Reviewed Journals are a good source since they are edited. They may be biased, but if you cite them well the misinformation is their fault not yours. If you use wikipedia people will be less likely to take your work seriously as well.

I think Wilkipedia is trustworthy 99% of the time but I don't use it for school because it is considered an "Unacceptable Source." But it is great for personal use.