How to use Wikipedia?

How do I use Wikipedia and Quora under specific context?

• Wikipedia seems to document all information/knowledge. I see it is very difficult to know how it evolves to the current version. As in Quora, it seems that knowledge is interactive,social and trendy. Are those quora's advantages to Wikipedia. How do we evaluate to use which one given different context?

• Answer:

  Wikipedia and Quora are both useful sources of knowledge but they address different needs. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia which means that it gathers in one place information from reputable sources. It does not attempt to collect all information, just the information that is notable and can be found in secondary sources like major newspapers. Quora is also a source of knowledge but on a very different way. You can ask questions about topics that are not notable to Wikipedia standards and you can ask for personal opinions as opposed to encyclopedic facts. There is some overlap but a question where the answer looks like a Wikipedia page is not a good Quora question. For example, if your question is "Who is Jimmy Wales?" then Wikipedia is the best place to look. If your question in "What is it like to meet Jimmy Wales?" then Quora is the place to go. Quora and Wikipedia complement each other. They are both needed but to obtain the best results Quorans need to learn which questions are really best answered by looking at Wikipedia or simply googling. In general, where there is a single unequivocable answe to your question -- like who is the president of Finland -- then Wikipedia is best. Where there are many opinions and there is no single answer Quora is the only choice. In all other cases you might need to use both.